Legalization of marijuana

Marijuana, pot, or “weed” has been widely illegal in the united states since 1937, even though the American medical association had objections because of marijuana's medical positives. Many Americans viewed pot in a bad light, partially due to prejudice towards Mexican immigrants in the 1910s who used marijuana, according to Eric Schlosser in an article for The Atlantic, “Police officers in Texas claimed that marijuana incited violent crimes and arose a lust for blood, giving it’s user superhuman strength.” This obviously wasn’t true, but rumor spread that Mexican immigrants were giving “killer weed” to American school kids. Marijuana is not all that toxic to the body and has medicinal benefits, it is used to soothe migraines, insomnia, and stomach aches. It can also treat and reduce seizures and works as a painkiller without causing dependence and there is no such thing as a marijuana overdose, in fact when compared to alcohol, alcohol kills more than 140,000 people each year due to overconsumption, while marijuana kills absolutely none. Regardless of all the benefits, marijuana was effectively banned nationwide in the 1937 “Marijuana tax act”. Punishment for possession of marijuana would continue to get worse until the 1970s when most states made their disciplines lighter. However, it is still considered a schedule 1 substance, in the group as much harsher drugs like heroin and methamphetamine.

Counter argument: Smoking marijuana is still inhaling smoke, which isn't good for your lungs. The drug of marijuana isn't harmful in itself, but the smoke inhalation is just the same as smoking a cigarette, or vaping, although cigarettes still have nicotine and vapes have more harmful chemicals. There are also vaping products that contain marijuana. This is why smoking marijuana should be illegal under the age of 18, although there are other methods of consuming marijuana such as edible products like chocolates or gummies, these are often disguised like other products such as Trolli gummy worms or nerds rope. I believe these products should be much more clearly labeled and not disguised as children's products to avoid children from consuming them.

Now, marijuana is legalized for medicinal use in 29 states, and legal for recreational use in 8 states, recently president Biden granted a pardon to those who were caught with simple marijuana possession, stating “No one should be in jail for simply using or possessing marijuana.”.  I believe recreational marijuana should be legalized for all over the age of 18 across the entire united states.

 

What do you think?

Should marijuana be legalized nationwide for recreational use?

 

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  • I believe that marijuana is very important for medical use. It often helps those considered to be in a large amount of pain. Recreational use is a different story, I think that it could be used moderately to keep some people from abusing it.

  • I think that marijuana could be legalized for use in the right scenarios. The bad part of about legalization is that there is people who will abuse it. Many people use it as a way to relax and they could go too far. It is good to relax, but it must be to a certain extent.

  • I think that weed should only be used for medical benefits. When I say that, I mean, not fueling your addicition. If marijuana was leagalized, then there will be weed everywhere and its not a very good thing for a community.  

  • In my opinion, I don't think that the legalization of marijuana should be legalized because it causes more harm than good. I think it should only be used for medical things not just for people to use it. People that use drugs would abuse this, but you could say the same thing about alcohol.

  • I am skeptical about the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana can be used to do both good and bad. I think that marijuana, in the right hands can do so much good. Doctors and other researchers can use marijuana to advance the medical field to help more people in the world.

  • I dont think that the legalization of marijuana should be legalized because it causes more harm than good. I think that it should only be legalized for medical resons and not for just enjoyment. I also think that it could case more people to be addicts and get addicted to other drugs. 

  • I think that marijuana shouldn't be legalized. I feel that the lagalization of marijuana will just cause more issues to people, like lung damage, early death, cancer, and addiction. I also think the same with marijuana being illegal nationwide for recreational use. 

    • As I stated in my post, marijuana doesn't really cause many health issues, sure smoke inhalation isn't good for the lungs, but with marijuana it is not near as bad when compared to cigarettes or vaping. It's not really that possible to get lung damage or cancer from smoking marijuana, this is backed by multiple sources such as the national institute of drug abuse who stated in an article, "However, while a few small, uncontrolled studies have suggested that heavy, regular marijuana smoking could increase risk for respiratory cancers, well-designed population studies have failed to find an increased risk of lung cancer associated with marijuana use.

  • I think that it could be legalized but they would make a lot of laws for it and get it legalized with a lot of restrictions. I think that it should not be legalized because I do not believe that it does not do a lot for people and it is just like smokeing and making people get cancer and bad lungs.

    • I agree with you when you say that smoking could cause lung damage, obviously, inhaling smoke at all isn't good for you. but there are things like edible marijuana that remove that negative,

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