Legalizing Marijuana

Legalizing Marijuana

               “Why is marijuana against the law? It grows naturally upon our planet. Doesn’t the idea of making nature against the law seem a bit… unnatural?” – Bill Hicks.  Pot, weed, grass, ganja, dope, herb, Mary Jane, cannabis, reefer, and hemp, these are all the different types of names for the one and only blessed herb, marijuana. I’m sure you’ve heard of the phrase “don’t drink and drive”, but have you ever heard of “don’t smoke and drive?” And so I ask you, how come all types of hard alcohol and other wines are legal while weed is illegal? Marijuana has been illegal since around the 1970’s, yet according to Nitya Venkataraman of ABC News (2006), it’s America’s number one cash crop. As one embraces the herb, it provides a sense of tranquility entwined in the mind and body. Marijuana grows in various places around the world, is one of the safest drugs, and can be used as medicinal substances.

               Having marijuana would bring a plethora of benefits. To start off, legalizing marijuana would reduce drug wars. Millions of dollars would be saved, and in fact, drug cartels would eventually run out of business. This would also help the economy significantly flourish. We’ve seen the government attempt at taking action against weed, yet it’s become a large part of the wide consuming nation. If the US were ever to legalize and tax it, which it has started to do now, the US could start by paying off their most recent debt of $20 trillion as of 2014. It would create a plethora of jobs, and many prisoners caught with marijuana would be let go. As weed is a naturally grown plant, people must not be charged for a criminal offense. These innocent people are merely using what the world has in store for us. People are unnecessarily sentenced to prison, and are put through an immense amount of pressure and stress; isolated from this world, simply because they tried to attain a natural plant. An author of the Huffington post (2014), Kathleen Miles, states that almost 50% of inmates are imprisoned due to drug offenses. This just means that the citizens have to carry a bigger burden and pay heavier taxes to provide sufficient funding for prisons. If you don’t want to look at what the people or actors say or do, look at the US presidents! Elite daily (2013) states that even JFK, George Washington, Andrew Jackson, and Zachary Taylor all smoked weed to reduce either war tensions (Jackson and Taylor), or to ease back/ teeth pain (Kennedy and Washington). Marijuana has many more advantages, way more advantages, rather than just curing or preventing bodily diseases.  As one smokes marijuana, he/she escapes worldly discomforts and is put into his/her own “bubble.” It eases the mind and brings them to an elevated state of mind. People have described the experience of weed to be one of “dream-like.”

Many still ponder over why marijuana is still illegal today. Is it because of the many dangers it proposes? Perhaps consuming marijuana associates with lung damage, brain damage, along with memory loss. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine stated that marijuana does not impair long term memory. It is given that marijuana can cause short term memory loss whilst under the influence, but the same given is applied to coffee, alcohol, and other stimulants.  Barth Wilsey, a pain medicine specialist at the University of California Davis (UCD) Medical Center states that marijuana is used mainly for pain, pains such as headaches, and cancer. The Business Insider states that weed can treat glaucoma, reverse tobacco effects and improve lung health, control seizures, stop cancer from further spreading, decrease anxiety, help sclerosis and Alzheimer’s, help boost metabolism, help discomfort from arthritis, and might even eliminate Crohn’s disease (Welsh & Loria, 2014). After smoking small amounts of marijuana patients are said to be relaxed and stress free. Don’t you wish that if you had any type of disease, that you’d be willing to do anything to ease its pain? Let those who want to come at ease from suffering smoke weed, if you can’t help them directly, at least do so indirectly by allowing them to smoke the natural herb. What have they done to deserve such depression from being diagnosed with the disease, and then being further prohibited by an individual who doesn’t feel their pain to not be able to utilize marijuana? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also approves of THC, the main component in weed, which is also found in Cesamet and Marinol (prescribed medicines). It is impossible to overdose on Marijuana, as the only effects you feel is the smoke tampering with your body. Marijuana produces such chemicals that the body produces when it is in its course of relieving pain, inflammation, and etc. Laura Borgelt, a doctor of pharmacy (Pharm D) from the University of Colorado states that “Marijuana can sometimes help those natural chemicals work better.”