Mary Jane

The first website that I looked at outlined the reasons why marijuana should be legalized. The three main points are freedom, economics, and the past failures of prohibition. Marijuana should be legalized because people deserve the right to make the decision to use it or not. We live in America, where all people should have the freedom to make these choices for themselves. It should also be legal because of the ridiculous expenses used to keep it illegal. If marijuana were legal, it could be taxed and the money could be used for much more important problems. Last of all, alcohol prohibition failed and therefore, so will the prohibition of marijuana. Marijuana is easy for younger people to access and in addition, most dealers don't care if customers are over 21. In addition to these arguments, the website mentions the medicinal and even religious uses of marijuana, and the agricultural and industrial uses of hemp.
The second website that I read through provided an argument against the legalization of marijuana. If marijuana is legalized, it will send a message to children that drug use is acceptable. A state should and cannot be involved with a substance that a large portion of the population is against. There is the Gateway Theory, which says that the use of marijuana will lead to the use of harder drugs. The new availability that would follow legalization will just create more consumers, instead of improving the problem of addiction. Finally, there is supposed violence associated with drugs, and drug use in general is dangerous to people other than just the user.
Personally, I believe that legalizing marijuana is a great idea and I am for it. While I admit there would be some drawbacks, I believe that the amount of money that would be saved or used for better purposes is well worth it. Not only could the government tax marijuana, but there would be so much money available from all the prisons, arrests, and officials that it is no longer going to. This money could make huge progress in education, rehabilitation programs, and health care. In addition, I have a strong belief that medical marijuana experimentation could lead to a cure, or at least a better treatment for cancer.