Why should Marijuana remain illegal?

mikenike1244

Honestly, I don't smoke the stuff and never have but a lot my friends and a good portion of my high school does and we have some of the highest public school scores in California. So i think it should be legalized because it's not deadly or addictive. I wrote this about 10 minutes before class and got an B on it in AP English. (I personally think it was organized terribly)

A speach i wrote sophomore year: Even if you dont beleive this logic.. ESPECIALLY in this economy... The Legalization of Marijuana

We, as human beings and also as Americans, have a right to make decisions for ourselves as long as our choices do not harm others. Responsible individuals in a free society should be aloud to choose whether or not they use marijuana. Marijuana should be legal in the United States.

Legalizing marijuana would save this country an immense amount of money. All levels of government (Federal, State, and Local Authorities) participate on the â€œWar on Drugs.â€ We currently spend billions of dollars chasing down generally peaceful people. After we catch them, taxpayers must pay for their food, housing, health care, attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses to lock these people up. If marijuana were legal, not only would we not be wasting all of this money, but we could collect taxes on it and we would have more money to spend on meaningful causes such as education and healthcare.

People who support marijuana prohibition claim that marijuana is unhealthy and dangerous. They say we need to keep drugs illegal to protect our society from the addiction and disease that they cause. These arguments are not consistent with the fact that the two most deadly drugs in America are legal. Alcohol and tobacco are far more addictive and harmful than marijuana, but they are legally available. If we want to have drug policies that are logical and effective, we need to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to the regulation of alcohol and tobacco.

The First Amendment of the U.S Constitution says the government cannot make laws "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion. Many people use marijuana as a religious sacrament, and forcing them not to use marijuana clearly prohibits the free exercise of their religion. Rastafarians, along with many other religions use marijuana in religious rituals to enhance their consciousness of the relationship between God, Creation, and the individual soul. Despite what the constitution states, people are continually being denied the right to use religious use as a defense to prosecution for marijuana possession.

The last and probably most important reason that marijuana should be legalized is that prohibition does not work. There is no good evidence that prohibition decreases drug use. In fact there are people who think it may in fact increase drug use. One unintended effect of the prohibition of marijuana is that it is very popular among American High Schools. Why? Because itâ€™s available. Most dealers will sell you marijuana no matter what your age. It is actually easier for many high school students to obtain marijuana than it is for them to obtain alcohol, because alcohol is legal and therefore regulated to keep it away from kids. We tried prohibition with alcohol, and that failed miserably. In the 1920â€™s when alcohol was illegal, it significantly increased crime because addicted alcoholics needed to turn to crime figures to get the alcohol. Is that not what is happening now? We should be able to learn our lesson and stop repeating the same mistake.

The Prohibition of Marijuana is completely irresponsible. Please do your part and sign a petition stating that marijuana should be legal.

Golden

should be decriminalized. it's a plant. digitalis will stop your heart, yet it grows along the roadways all over the place. pot just relaxes you, lots of medical benefits, but pot is illegal. that is ridiculous.

as to this issue one must ask, does government own me, or do i own government?

reactwxman

the only reason it is illegal is the US Government has no way of taxing it so they can get a piece of the pie

ou812

Mostly for economic reasons. The police and state make huge profits from seizures and court costs.
The health issues are minor when compared to alcohol and often it is beneficial. ie; glaucoma, cancer(nausea,induces hunger) and may be helpful with ADD.
Truthfully I think we would create more money by legalizing it. People growing it, selling it and no more wasted tax dollars spent TRYING to stop it.

Joe

causes a decrease in judgement, a loss of inhibitions.

in some long-term cases, marijuana can cause minor/moderate hallucinations. for instance, some people are admitted to psychiatry because of marijuana use in the past. some patients report seeing dots of color, or hearing noises that are not actually being emitted. while these hallucinations are somewhat rare, they are certainly a decent reason not to legalize marijuana.

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