In the past, the cannabisplant used to be one of the most widely grown cash crops: farmers were orderedto grow the plant. In the present, marijuana is given a bad name by thegovernment, teachers, and parents for various reasons, however, most of thecommon arguments against it don’t hold any truth at all. Although many peoplebelieve that marijuana use leads to crime, more drug use, and health problems,using marijuana is less harmful than the majority of legal substances, and iflegalized it would provide relief to our troubled economy.
If marijuana islegalized and taxed, it will boost the flow of money in the United Sates.Regardless of this, people such as Joel W. Hay, a professor of pharmaceuticaleconomics at USC, believe that marijuana will take a toll on society iflegalized, assuming that legalization will increase its usage(TIME-California). Although marijuana has been known to cloud judgment, JudgeJames Grey states that marijuana could not be made more available if they tried(TIME-California). Taking this into consideration, since marijuana sells over$14 billion annually in California, it is hard to doubt the ease of which marijuanacan be acquired (TIME-California). Tax collectors speculate that the billcurrently in the state to legalize and tax marijuana would raise over $1.3billion in revenue (TIME-California). Since California is currently strugglingwith finances, legalizing marijuana is an obvious option to relieve the stresson the state’s financial system. Nationally, as the number of marijuana arrestsis increasing, the cost spent on marijuana offenders will increase as well(Alternet). Currently, there are about 34,000 state and federal prisonersserving time for marijuana charges; taxpayers spend over $1 billion per 12months in order to put these criminals behind bars (Alternet). Too much moneyis spent on incarcerating violators of marijuana laws compared to the harmfulnessof marijuana, which has not directly killed anybody to date. If marijuana islegalized, there will be more room in prisons for more serious criminals, andmore money resulting from taxes to spend on improving the country.
While considering thelegalization of marijuana, it is important to note that marijuana wasillegalized for the wrong reasons, and prohibiting it doesn’t stop usage. Thefoundation of many anti-legalization arguments is the postulation that keepingmarijuana illegal deters the populace from smoking it (TIME-California). Thisbelief is artificial, seeing as prohibition, from the Forbidden Fruit toalcohol in the 1900s, has never worked (The Union). Since the number ofmarijuana users was first recorded, in 1937, up until now, there has been overa 100,000% increase in the number of users (The Union). In fact, althoughmarijuana use has been illegal since 1937, at which point there were 55,000users, there are currently over 50 million worldwide (The Union). Thesestatistics clearly demonstrate that even though marijuana for recreationalpurposes is just as illegal in the present as it was in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s,70s, 80s, and 90s, citizens are not being deterred from buying, selling, andconsuming the substance. In addition, although it is publicized that marijuanause causes troubles with one’s well being, the grounds it was banned on werenot related to physical wellbeing of personal users at all. Truthfully, afterWorld War Two the government realized that marijuana use made people calm inpeaceful, which in turn led to the idea that if marijuana were legal, theSoviet Union would use it to control the United States and turn us to communism(The Union). The reasons marijuana use was condemned by the law are notapplicable to current times, since communism is no longer a threat to ourcountry, and the vast majority of the widespread rumors about marijuana usagehave nothing to do with why marijuana is condemned by federal and stateregulations. As a result of marijuana being illegal for obsolete reasons, moneyis wasted in vain trying to stop its usage.
Most importantly, the“evidence” that is used to justify marijuana being illegal is artificial; thereare no conclusive studies that prove marijuana causes the multitude ofdisorders that are attributed to its use, unlike the consumption of tobacco oralcohol. Frequently, it is said that the smoking marijuana damages cells in thebronchial passageways (The Medical Dangers of Marijuana). This is true, but itis not the chemicals in marijuana that cause harm to the respiratory system(The Union). It is the properties of smoke itself, and any organic particlesentering the lungs will cause harm (The Union). Although people may have diedindirectly from the effects of marijuana (driving while high, etc.), nobody todate has perished directly from smoking marijuana (The Union). In comparison,433,000 people in the USA die from tobacco use each year, 85,000 from alcohol(not including car accidents), and over 7,500 from non-steroidalanti-inflammatory drugs such as aspirin (The Union). Marijuana, which isallowed for medical use in 13 states, is much less harmful than many legalsubstances, including substances that are used for medicinal purposes.Oftentimes, when someone is listing the negative effects of marijuana on thebody, they will use the argument that marijuana kills brain cells (The Union).This statement comes from an experiment done in 1974, in which monkeys wereforced to inhale the equivalent of 63 joints, or marijuana cigarettes, in under5 minutes with no additional oxygen, suffocating them. After 3 months of doingthis every day, the monkeys started to die. When the brains of the monkeys inthe experiment were found to have less cells than the brains of the monkeys inthe control group, it was published that marijuana destroys the nervous system,when in fact the lack of oxygen ruined the brains of the monkeys (The Union).The groundwork of the claim that marijuana is detrimental to your health comesfrom a single test performed over 30 years ago, with imprecise results, yetmarijuana is still illegal. Further experiments that have been done concerningmarijuana have shown nothing similar to this result; they have to say thingslike marijuana “may” cause cancer, but cannot make a solid conclusion (TheUnion). In reality, marijuana has been shown to stimulate brain cell growth, asshown in a 2005 study (The Union). The world is bias against marijuana. As aresult of these experiments, marijuana is unjustly looked down upon in almostall situations across the US, and the rest of the world.
The cold, hard truthis that marijuana is not as harmful as various, completely accepted,recreational and therapeutic materials and legalizing the use of marijuanawould benefit many areas of life. It is important for us to stop spreading andbelieving anti-marijuana information, when we know for a fact that it is false.In order to achieve the legalization of marijuana we need to make the truthabout marijuana use evident, and urge local, state, and federal governmentrepresentatives to support the legalization of marijuana.
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