Call it cannabis!

Since it seems that everyone in our class is for the legalization of cannabis, let me say this: If you want to see cannabis legalized, then don't refer to it as marijuana (which is a Mexican word that found it's way into the English language in the 1930's when the government and private interests were pushing forth legislation to criminalize cannabis), and don't refer to it as any of it's myriad of street names; these names demonize the substance and constrict people's thinking about it. Refer to it as cannabis, which is the true scientific, English language word for it.

Prohibition has never worked in America. During the prohibition of alcohol we created an entirely new revenue stream for organized crime rings like the mafia. This was the main reason that the mafia gained so much power during those days. That is happening again with the Mexican drug cartels because of cannabis prohibition.
The ultimate effect of prohibiting any substance is that substance moving from the legitimate market to the black market. This effect has many severe ramifications: The government can no longer tax or control the sale of the substance, the government spends much needed tax dollars on trying to eradicate the substance (unsuccessfully) and imprisoning otherwise law abiding citizens, the substance will only be sold on the black market (which is completely unregulated) by criminals (or connoisseurs of the substance), and people who continue to buy and use the substance must deal with real, potentially violent criminals.
A recent study found that if cannabis was regulated and taxed in California, the California state government would bring in over a billion dollars a year. That's just in California, the federal government would probably take in anywhere from 25-50 billion dollars in taxes if it was regulated across the country. Also, as long as cannabis is kept in the black market we cannot control who buys or uses it; There is no age restrictions on the black market, the street corner dealer doesn't care if you're 13 or 25 as long as you have the money. Currently it is easier, on average, for high school students to buy cannabis than it is to buy alcohol.
The very idea that the US government can successfully eradicate cannabis from America by imprisoning users and dealers is flawed because the more dealers they arrest, the higher the prices become, and the higher the prices become, the more people start dealing. This is an equation that can never work. Furthermore, when we arrest users we are not hitting at the source of the problem, it just clogs up our legal system. I was arrested for minor possession of cannabis last November and I am still suffering the consequences (Huge legal fees, completely unnecessary rehab classes, oh and FIVE DAYS in one of the worst prisons in the country, along with a slew of constitutional infractions that I just can either spend even more money in legal fees fighting or just forget about; and unless someone wants to donate money then I'll probably go for the latter).