To Legalize, or not to Legalize? That is the Question

We, the American people, live on the frontier of an up and coming world. The dawn of a new age has begun to shine its light on our country; an age of available cures to seemingly incurable diseases. Imagine living in a time in which we have the power to control seizures, decrease anxiety, stop the spread of cancer cells, slow Alzheimer's disease, and so much more. To those living forty years ago, this would seem like an impossible task- a dream that lay as far away as the stars.

Now, this dream is as tangible as our own skin.In Peter Tosh’s 1976 song “Legalize It,” he states “Some call it tampere, tampere, some call it the weed, some call it marijuana, marijuana, some of them call it ganja, ganja...” Although different groups of people have had different names for the plant, one thing is extremely clear: Marijuana is deeply ingrained into our culture. For centuries, Americans have utilized the crop for pharmaceutical and recreational purposes.

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It has caused a tidal wave of medical breakthroughs, and has potential to give the lower class easier access medical care.

All the reasons discussed so far are among a few as to why marijuana should be legalized.Nine states, including the District Of Columbia (DC), have legalized marijuana for recreational use, twenty two have legalized it solely for medical use, and fifteen have legalized the use of CBD (cannabis extract) for medical use. Since 1970, the American people’s support for legalized marijuana has gone from only 12% to a whopping 65%.

Today, a total of 94% of americans now support the use of medical marijuana. US adults support legalizing medical marijuana, due to the studies that have found that millennials are more in favor of legalizing marijuana than their previous generations. Many wonder why is that the younger generation has so much support towards the use of medical marijuana? Although this grand amount of support exists, there still exists a stigma against marijuana. Some argue that marijuana is a “gateway drug,” or a drug that leads to the abuse of more harmful substances. Their argument bases on the fact that marijuana can be addictive, and that we’d just see an increase of people rushing to rehabilitation centers. Although it is true that marijuana can be addictive to some people, we still see the legality of alcohol and tobacco; two substances that are not only addictive, but extremely harmful to the body.

Marijuana takes on an opposite effect- curing a range of things from anxiety to seizures.The legalization of marijuana would also help to solve America’s incarceration problem. Today, there are more people incarcerated in American prisons than in any other country in the world. A fraction of those serving time are in jail for the possession or distribution of marijuana. By legalizing marijuana, not only would we see less of our citizens in prison, but we’d save the money that would be spent on their incarceration fees.Another benefit to the legalization of marijuana would be the taxes collected from purchase. Our economy would benefit from these taxes, along with the lowered incarceration cost. Not only that, but more money would be going towards small marijuana businesses and independent sellers rather than to foreign drug dealers. We could use the money saved to build schools, parks, community centers, and so much more. Marijuana would not only benefit its users, but everyone in the United States. According to a new report from New Frontier Data, states with legalized marijuana are on track to generate approximately $655 million in state taxes on retail sales in 2017.

Report also does not fail to broadcast the the major tax revenues that would occur in states with legalized use of marijuana. The direct cannabis taxes mixed with indirect taxes, example; an income tax on new jobs that have been created, and retail taxes on consumer spending from the newly created jobs has created an incredibly large tax boom for these states.       With a drop in drug dealers, we’d also see not only less crime, but much lower incarceration rates. Important to keep in mind that drug dealers normally don’t just sell marijuana, but other drugs such as cocaine, heroin, meth, anything that would make them a large profit. If drug dealers weren’t making their money from marijuana, they may go out of business as marijuana is the main staple point to a dealer.” If the consumers had a legal and safe way to get high, they’d also be less likely to turn to harder drugs.” Although these benefits to our economy would be wonderful, some oppose this boost because they believe marijuana is a dangerous drug and should have some form of punishment attached to it. One of those main reasons to being against the legalization of cannabis is parents are worried that if their children get their hands on it at a young age, that they will develop a dependency on the plant. More worries include the stress of not only a dependency on cannabis, but also the fear of trying other drugs like tobacco, lsd, etc are commonly linked with the dependency of marijuana. Evidence that marijuana is a gateway drug to trying other drugs, including tobacco, 'is limited,' the researchers say. But they found 'moderate evidence' that there's a link between cannabis use and the development of substance dependence, a common counter argument to this point is you can technically get addicted to anything and it become a gateway drug, you just must obtain self control.

If cannabis was the producer of significant lung damage, including respiratory symptoms, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, and was responsible for one and five deaths, it would most definitely still be illegal for human consumption. Unfortunately those facts are on cigarettes that have been legal since way back in 1881 with the first widespread cigarette machine. Although there was a suggestion that very heavy use of marijuana might be taking a toll on the lungs, the researchers could not get reliable estimates of the effects of very heavy marijuana exposure, as such smokers were relatively rare in the study population, “Our findings suggest that occasional use of marijuana for these or other purposes may not be associated with adverse consequences on pulmonary function,” Pletcher said. “On the other hand, our findings do suggest an accelerated decline in pulmonary function with heavier use – either very frequent use or frequent use over many years – and a resulting need for caution and moderation when marijuana use is considered.” to get these kind of results on different substances they studied the air flow rate, the speed in which someone can blow air out- and finally lung volume , which is the amount of air a person is capable of holding. “Essentially with tobacco, the more you use, the more loss you have with both of the indicators, air flow rate and lung volume,” said the paper’s last author Stefan Kertesz, MD, MSc, associate professor in the Division of Preventive Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and the Birmingham VA Medical Center. “There’s a straight-line relationship: the more you use, the more you lose.” it was not the same results when looking at cannabis. There is also a debate that cannabis wasn't seen as bad or looked down upon until minorities started to come into america using it as well.

The association with minorities and marijuana became bad, that cannabis would make you insane, criminal behavior or actions, and even as far as to go as to say it would cause death to the user. It was made illegal in an attempt to control Mexican immigration into the United States and to help boost the profits of large pharmaceutical companies. Humans have been using the plant for almost 10,000 years to make necessary items such as clothing and pottery and even rope. Often used by Native Americans and muslims for its praised “healing powers” of common illnesses at the time; example like malaria and even 'absent-mindlessness.' Cannabis was first introduced to America in by the Spanish in 1545, soon after it became a large consumer demand and grown alongside tobacco fields.

Farmers mostly grew hemp instead of cannabis (a form of the plant that is very low in THC), and by 1890 it had replaced cotton as the major cash crop in southern states, hemp was flourishing in the United states until about the 1910’s when mexican immigrants started popularizing the recreational use of cannabis and the majority of white people didn't approve of this and since, it has been deemed as criminally responsible. Around the same time as 1910, the Mexican revolution started to boil over and many mexicans were immigrating to the U.S to escape. The mexican population had its own unique use of cannabis that the white masses were not used to, they advocated for the recreational use of “marijuana” a term introduced by the immigrants, U.S politicians quickly jumped on the opportunity to label cannabis “marihuana” in order to give it a bad rep by making it sound more authentically Mexican at a time of extreme prejudice. The topic of marijuana has been debated for decades now. Whether we will ever reach one conclusion is unknown, but one thing is clear, we are heading in a direction of more natural medicine and recognising the health benefits from medical use of cannabis, the amount of tax boom, incarceration rates going down, and maybe even taking a hard look on the effects of tobacco.