The Cliffs

Legalize

We've all seen it in the movies and for some of us we've seen it right in front of our own home. Marijuana has been around for very long time. Even Walt Disney had it in one of their classic cartoon movies called Peter Pan. I grew up around weed all my life. I've never personally tried it but I've seen how it helped people. For that, I believe marijuana should be legalized in every state rather than just some states.

I've watched a couple of my family members that use marijuana a couple times a week and I've seen them go from a really stressed out workaholic to a calm person being able to relax in their home. Not only does it distress you but it helps you go from being in a depressed state to a happy go lucky state of mind in matter of a few puffs of smoke. Think about how many suicides we could possibly prevent by being able to prescribe it to people who are depressed. Right now in the U.S we have about 11.10 per 100,000 people die from suicide. (http://chartsbin.com/view/prm) Once we can legalize it here it will spread across the globe and hopefully help other people stray away from the suicide especially like the other countries that have three times more suicide rate. This is one of the many reasons legalizing could potentially help our people and government.

A couple controversies that hang over legalizing marijuana are: is it highly addictive or is it a gateway drug to harder drugs and is it causing our government too much money. Scientists say that marijuana is not as addictive as caffeine and not nearly as addictive as harder drugs such as cocaine. People are more likely to get addicted to drinking a cup of coffee rather than smoking pot. Also you're better off smoking marijuana rather drinking alcohol which is legal here. "And frequently it is something they choose to do specifically instead of alcohol. And for good reason! Alcohol is more toxic, more addictive, more harmful to the body, more likely to result in injuries, and more likely to lead to interpersonal violence than marijuana." (http://www.saferchoice.org/content/view/24/53/) As said above alcohol is worse to do rather than smoking marijuana. How can you legalize something that does a lot more harm and also causes more accidents every year and not legalize something that can have greater good consequences rather than the bad ones like alcohol prevails.

Many think if marijuana is legalized then we will have a greater fight to the other drugs such as cocaine. But that's not entirely the case. Research shows that "Using marijuana puts children and teens in contact with people who are users and sellers of other drugs. So there is more of a risk that a marijuana user will be exposed to and urged to try more drugs."( http://alcoholism.about.com/cs/pot/f/mjkids_faq10.htm) but if we take out the dealer and put it in certain stores it could potentially help people not go to the other drugs because there will not be someone offering a good deal on some pills or coke. No one would have to go to a dark alley and buy from a random stranger at night; instead they could run to the store to buy it and it cuts the dealer right out of the picture. With the dealer being cut out from selling marijuana it will help them to not make nearly as much money as they