Pros and Cons of Legalizing Marijuana

When we first picked our topic for our presentations I had an idea of what we were going to do. Ideas from school shootings to you and human trafficking were some I was thinking of. The drug epidemic was what first came to thought but I felt that was to broad of of a topic. With state after state legalizing Medical or Recreational Marijuana it is becoming more likely within the near future will become federally legal. Today there are over 33 states for medical use for 10 recreational use(bi).

I believe the federal legalization of marijuana is a no brained question . The government has misrepresented Marijuanas benefits it has it placed as a Schedule One Drug.

Having marijuana set as a schedule one drug means there is no medical uses and has high potential for drug abuse. It being set as schedule one along side Heroin and MDMA. Drug search has cocaine and meth are listed as schedule two which means they have some medical valueWhen these two girls have been proven to be more dangerous and addictive than marijuana. President Trump said that he is going to allow states to choose what to do with marijuana . His first Attorney General Jeff Sessions was a strong opposer of marijuana and compared its dangerous to those of meth and heroin. He has even said that “good people don’t smoke marijuana” . If you are able to go home after work and drink a beer you should be able to go home and spark up a joint. Marijuana over the years has been represented wrongly years of misconceptions are finally getting cleared up.

When I found out why marijuana was made illegal it was not what I was thinking. It’s not a dangerous drug with thousands of overdoses there has not been a marijuana related death in US history. It’s illegal because of outrageous propaganda and anti immigration sentiments in the early 1900s. After many Mexican immigrants came to the US after the Mexican revolution in 1910 many brought some of their traditions which include smoking marijuana. Soon after the immigrants arrived news articles were published claiming smoking marijuana incited violence and that Mexicans were seeking it to school children. By 1931 over 25 states made marijuana illegal to possess. Many opposers of marijuana called it an “evil weed” that leads to sex crimes, murder and insanity.In 1937 the Marijuana Tax Act which made it illegal to possess . What Congress didn’t know is that criminalizing Marijuana outlawed the production of hemp.

A hemp is a form of the marijuana plant that produces less the 0.3% THC. Hemp has a wide variety uses and it can be made into clothes, paper and rope. Hemp production would be a great alternative for the way paper is made. One acres of hemp plants produces as much as 4 acres of trees. Hemp plants also grow quickly on average a full hemp plant can grow in 120 days compared to trees that can take up to 20-80 years. In 1938 the magazine Popular Mechanics career hemp the next billion dollar crop with over thousands of known uses.

Marijuana if regulated and legalize could be the next billion dollar industry. States with the legalize marijuana are reaping the benefits of legalization with hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. California is expected to reach over 1 billion from tax revenue of marijuana and is going to be the largest marijuana market in the world. In 2016 sales collectively in the United States increased by 30% to 6.7 billion in sales. Marijuana is not only making money for states where it’s legalized it’s also creating jobs.In 2015 more than 18,000 jobs were created in Colorado in the marijuana industry.

Money brought in by marijuana tax revenue in Colorado is being used to help the homeless stoping opioid crisis and going to schools. Legalization of marijuana in many states was supposed to drive a crime rates and have an increase of teen drug use . Since legalization teen drug use in Colorado is at a decade low with less than 9% of teen admitting to smoking marijuana Alcohol and drug use among those teen also has lowered. States along the border have seen lower the violent crime rates since the legalization of medical marijuana we’re down by 13% and drug related homicides we’re down 41%. Legalization would see reduce crimes rates as whole in the country more people arrested for marijuana then all violent crimes combined. Marijuana legalization is solving more problems than expected especially medically.

Marijuana has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. The earliest recorded use of medical marijuana was in 2737 BC in china it was used to treat malaria and gout and over thousand different issues. Marijuana today is used for pain relief, nausea, anxiety and sleep problems.There are two compounds in marijuana that give it medical use THC and CBD. THC otherwise known as tetrahydrocannabinol is the psychoactive compound found in marijuana that gives people the “high feeling”.

CBD or cannabinol Is the main medical compound found in marijuana.CBD unlike THC is a non-psychoactive compound that actually has anti-psychoactive features it’s also used as a Anti-inflammatory . Marijuana today has many different additional uses some parents today with kids that have epilepsy or are going through chemotherapy or move it to states with legalized marijuana. They are moving to the states in the hope that marijuana can offset some side effects from certain medication for their ailments.Some researchers today have found that certain cannabinoids even attack cancer cells. Marijuana is a plant that has been used medically for a long time that our body even has its own endocannabinoids system meaning that we have been using marijuana for many purpose forever.

Marijuana legalization is Inevitable most likely coming with the next liberal president. For the past 100 years our government has been lying to us about the dangers of a plant that has none.Misconceptions from that it’s a gateway drug to that if you smoke it will fry your brain making you less intelligent. It makes you think what else the government has been lying to us about.

During Group projects sometimes others that don’t do their share of the work. That is not what happened in this case everyone did their own share. We each had inputs in what our group presentation was going to be and how we where going to do it. We did end up changing our presentation from legalizing marijuana to the Pros and Cons of legalization which I believe their is no cons . We also felt that a presentation for legalization would not be taken seriously from the class in prior classes I have done similar presentation in favor of legalization which most students can’t believe we actually talk about it. One the days off we broke down individual topics to research. I think everybody did a good job each doing there share of the presentation.

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