Legalizing Marijuana:For or Against
...aws more efficient and to eliminate drug use. 2. This prohibition of drugs has made the drug trade highly lucrative, allowing organized crime to flourish and the nation’s murder rate to skyrocket (Booth 156). 3. Marijuana prohibition establishes a minimum baseline level of cultural dishonesty. E. Legalizing drugs such as marijuana would highly benefit the United States. 1. If marijuana is legalized or decriminalized people will stop having to illegally sale and use the drug, which will decrease the crime rate in America. 2. When the illicit drug business leaves the cities, our homes, streets and schools will become far safer (Hallfors 4). 3. Legalization of drugs will make more room in jails and prisons for real criminals such as murders and sexual offenders. F. Marijuana is dangerous and causes lung cancer and other respiratory diseases. 1. When marijuana is smoked the active ingredient THC travels to the brain, lungs, and the bloodstream and impairs a persons judgment and makes them hallucinate. 2. The “high” of the drug all depends on the potency of the THC and these side effects can cause increased heart rate and blood pressure (Inciardi 38). 3. Continuous use of the drug marijuana may cause a person to become dependant on it. 4. Tobacco and alcohol are just as dangerous as marijuana and those substances are both legal. 5. Lawmakers have their priorities in the wrong place. 6. 1,200 people die a day from tobacco use and no one has ever died from marijuana use (Khatapolish 3). 7. Lawmakers should make marijuana legal because it is one of the safest drugs on the market. G. If marijuana became legal youths would have greater access to the drug and become addicted. 1. Youths from the ages of 12 to 17 are more susceptible to becoming addicted to drugs than adults. 2. Studies show that youths obtain access to marijuana through older adults and often their parents (Connolly 15). 3. Peer pressure is often the cause that youths start to smoke and use drugs. 4. Marijuana is sold at parties, schools, and other places of interest and coming in contact with the drug is often unavoidable. 5. First time users of marijuana are often in junior high and start to smoke because they see others do it; mainly their parents. 6. 50 percent of 13-year olds reported that they could find and purchase marijuana easily (Connolly 33). 7. Even if marijuana would become legal that wouldn’t change how easy youths could get access to the drug marijuana. H. Marijuana is the gateway to more harmful and dangerous drug use. 1. Marijuana is a light but powerful drug that can influence people to do actions that they normally wouldn’t do. 2. If a person uses marijuana long enough there judgment may become impaired and they will venture off to try other drugs (Belenko 56). 3. Patterns of a persons behavior and fundamental attitude changes and gets altered after using marijuana. 4. Most people should have the common sense to know the consequences of using other drugs that are way more powerful than marijuana. 5. Heroin and crack addicts usually are all around and have a certain appearance that people would want to avoid. 6. Studies show that the use of marijuana is decreasing as the year’s progress, and that there are fewer addicts in America (Belenko 76). 7. Most addicts say that they started on cigarettes and alcohol, which then clouded their judgment. I. Marijuana or cannabis is a very effective treatment for many illnesses and diseases such as AIDS, glaucoma, seizures, pain, and nausea induced by chemotherapy for cancer treatment. Legal restrictions for the use of marijuana should be lifted to allow doctors to better treat their patients. 1. The law should allow marijuana to become legal so the drug can be used for medicinal purposes as well as for recreational purposes. 2. Marijuana is not addictive and not one person has ever died from overdosing so people wouldn’t be that affected by the drug. 3. Legalizing marijuana would benefit America greatly and help receive the money that it lost from trying to stop the drug abuse laws. I. Legalizing Marijuana A. There is a debate in America over whether the controversial drug marijuana should be made legal or whether it should remain illegal. 1. Studies show that forty-nine percent of high school students have used marijuana in the past year. 2. Marijuana or cannabis is a very effective drug that comes from the species of plant cannabis sativa, cannabis indica, and cannabis ruderalis. Marijuana is the most common and widely used drug in America. 3. Marijuana or cannabis is a very effective treatment for many illnesses and diseases such as AIDS, glaucoma, seizures, pain, and nausea induced by chemotherapy for cancer treatment. Legal restrictions for the use of marijuana should be lifted to allow doctors to better treat their patients. B. If marijuana would be legalized and more readily available there would be a decrease in crime and violence, and police would be able to concentrate on more important crimes in the community. 1. Marijuana is one of the less dangerous drugs found around the world and is not addicting. 2. Criminal sanctions against drug use improperly limit the freedom of adults to use substances no more dangerous than others now available legally and imprison people for actions that do not directly harm others, in contrast to most crimes (Belenko 56). 3. No person has ever died from the use of marijuana or any form of the drug. C. Marijuana has medicinal purposes that will help doctors more adequately treat their patients. 1. Marijuana has been used as a form of medicine since it was first discovered in the 1600’s. 2. Any drug that can be proven to induce pain, or make life easier for ailing patients, should be welcomed by society (Connolly 26). 3. Marijuana helps ease pain, strengthen muscles in multiple sclerosis patients, and helps give energy and appetite to AIDS patients. D. Harmful drug law enforcement efforts for marijuana should be abandoned in favor of decriminalization or legalization. 1. The federal government has squandered billions of dollars to make drug laws more efficient and to eliminate drug use. 2. This prohibition of drugs has made the drug trade highly lucrative, allowing organized crime to flourish and the nation’s murder rate to skyrocket (Booth 156). 3. Marijuana prohibition establishes a minimum baseline level of cultural dishonesty. E. Legalizing drugs such as marijuana would highly benefit the United States. 1. If marijuana is legalized or decriminalized people will stop having to illegally sale and use the drug, which will decrease the crime rate in America. 2. When the illicit drug business leaves the cities, our homes, streets and schools will become far safer (Hallfors 4). 3. Legalization of drugs will make more ...