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Argumentative Essay On Legalizing Marijuana

1213 Words5 Pages

Kaitlyn Johnson

Gregory Cecere

ENC1101

04/10/2018

Legalizing Marijuana

Marijuana has a very long history of human use dating back centuries. Ancient civilizations did not grow the plant so they could get high but as a way of healing and it was used for medicinal purposes. The legalization of marijuana has been a debatable issue for years due to the negative stigma around it. "This was at least partly motivated by Mexican immigration to the U.S. around the time of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, according to Eric Schlosser, author of Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market" (Little, Becky 2017). 29 states condemned marijuana between 1916 and 1931, and the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act basically made the drug …show more content…

"Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." (Drug Scheduling, DEA.org) It has been proven, time and time again, that marijuana does have numerous medical and health benefits. There are two accepted and productive chemicals in marijuana that researchers believe could be used for medicinal purposes, CBD and THC. There are 23 known medical benefits from decreasing anxiety to soothing the tremors associated with Parkinson's Disease. The most established and best-supported use of marijuana is for the relief of chronic pain. Many people with chronic pain suffer from neuropathy, which is associated with diabetes, kidney disorders, cancer, multiple sclerosis, etc. There have been numerous clinical and research trials that report that inhaling marijuana helps to relieve chronic pain. According to a report published by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine there is "conclusive or substantial evidence that cannabis or cannabinoids are effective in the treatment of chronic pain in adults, chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting of cancer patients and improving patient-reported multiple sclerosis spasticity symptoms" (“Health and Medicine Division.”) Marijuana also treats other types of muscle spasms as well, including stomach spasms and hypertonic muscle spasms. There is also some evidence that marijuana may not actually damage …show more content…

The legalization of marijuana could benefit the police and courts in two ways: more money and more time. Better funding means more persons on the job to handle the load and more time means that more attention is being paid to the more violent crimes. For a long time, possessing marijuana was treated the same way as having cocaine, methamphetamines or heroin because the law defines it as a Schedule I drug. Because of this, our prisons are over crowded and the court system is flooded with marijuana possession charges. "According to the FBI Unified Crime Statistics, 587,700 people were arrested in 2016 for marijuana-related crimes, more than for all violent crimes like murder and rape combined. As a result, marijuana arrests place an undue burden on our judicial system." (White, 2018) People who advocate for the legalization of marijuana believe that legalizing the drug could cut off profit for those involved in the illegal drug trade, making the violence associated with the drug decrease, therefore giving officers ample time to follow up on other, more violent crimes. Police are very keen on public safety, as this is their number one priority, which is why legalizing marijuana would help them focus more on the crimes that could disrupt that feeling of safety. I have seen stories on the news about cops planting drugs on civilians.

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It can reduce pain and nausea, and also is being researched to treat many other medical conditions. For example it is being tested to treat some forms of cancer and even reduce tumors. In the near future the, “Testing of cannabis [medicinal marijuana] and its derivatives has also begun on type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, stroke, Tourette syndrome, epilepsy, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia (Seppa)”. Whether it will work in treating these medical conditions or not, medicinal marijuana has come a long ways since it was first introduced as a possible powerful

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This has already been seen in New York, “According to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, in the first year after the reforms, courts diverted 1000 drug offenders who would have served state prison sentences under the old laws” (Schoenfeld pg315). This decriminalization of marijuana has also had a positive impact to the violence associated with marijuana. Criminals selling, smuggling, or killing over marijuana in legal states has been reduced, due to the fact it is readily available to the public. Eradicating these criminals associated with marijuana will enhance public safety all across the United

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There are many cases that people see on Facebook or other social media and news outlets where it is reported that people who commit more serious crimes, such as driving under the influence and hurting people, get off easier on technicalities than people who possess drugs, specifically marijuana, do. With the crime and jail rate being so high in America, that is concerning because it poses questions such as “what does our society value”? In research conducted by the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, it was found that police officers arrest 700,000 people annually for some sort of marijuana violation, and around 90% of those arrests are based on just possessing it (Cannabis Policy). This is a very large number for marijuana alone; imagine the number once all other drugs and crimes are taken into account. Legalizing the drug could decrease that number substantially by reducing the amount of people arrested for possessing it alone.

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A final factor to consider when looking at the reformation of federal marijuana laws are the social costs associated with the criminalization of cannabis. The American federal government, through the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, categorizes drugs based on their potential for abuse and possible medical uses. A schedule V drug is considered to have clear medical efficacy and a low potential for abuse, while a schedule I drug is considered to be highly addictive and of no medical value. Of all the schedule I drugs, considered federally to be the most dangerous of controlled substances, only marijuana has been legalized on a state level, in direct conflict with Federal law. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, these federal laws, constituting America 's "war on drugs," have led America to imprison more people per capita than any other nation in the world (The Drug War).

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It contains compounds called cannabinoids that interact with the body's endocannabinoid system to produce a range of effects, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is responsible for the plant's psychoactive effects. Another important cannabinoid is cannabidiol (CBD), which does not produce psychoactive effects but has been shown to have many therapeutic benefits. One of the most well-established uses of medical marijuana today is for the treatment of chronic pain. Studies have found that marijuana is effective in treating pain associated with conditions such as neuropathy, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis, as well as nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, and for appetite stimulation in patients with HIV/AIDS. It has also been shown to have potential therapeutic benefits for a variety of other conditions, including epilepsy, glaucoma, and PTSD.

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To add, recreational marijuana is taxable! Therefore, it is money that can be put into our communities. Recreational marijuana as intimidating as some may think, can actually benefit our community in many ways. To begin, many believe legalizing marijuana would cause crime to increase, on the contrary legalizing it will lead to a decrease of crime. Imagine that getting your hands on marijuana was as accessible as cigarettes in a gas station, how many illegal cigarette dealers have been punished in jail with the maximum sentence for selling cigarettes?

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Fast forward to 1990s, the CompStat system rewarded cops for low-level pot busts and as a result, arrests for marijuana increased by 113% (18 Times). Previous allegations of marijuana altered from a public nuisance, to idea of being just as dangerous as heroin and cocaine when in fact many of these claims were not scientifically supported and opposition was quickly silenced

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After centuries of worldwide use of cannabis and hemp leaves, the United States government in 1937 declared marijuana illegal with the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act. With most of the prominent users of marijuana

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Utilized for thousands of years for a plethora of ailments and other uses, cannabis, has been illegal at some level in the U.S. since the 1930s, and officially ban in the 1970s. The topic of illegal vs. legal marijuana has been a highly controversial subject for the past 9 decades. Political, economical, medical, and personal points of view have been made. It seems there is plenty to be said about a plant weed. Recently as many as thirty states and the District of Columbia have laws legalizing marijuana in some form or fashion.

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If legalized, marijuana could cause societal problems in many areas. First of all, the easy access to legal marijuana would mean that more of it would get into the hands of kids and teens. Police officers worry that we will see increased crime on the streets as marijuana lowers inhibitions and users will do whatever is necessary to feed their addiction. There are also problems with people who use marijuana and drive.

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They point to the drawbacks that marijuana imposes. There are concerns that legalization can make marijuana more available for abuse, especially by children. In addition, many feel there is still little proof marijuana has any medicinal value. Two adequate and well-controlled studies in cancer pain compared graded doses of oral 9-THC to placebo, and one of these included graded doses of codeine as a control. Although there was evidence of analgesic efficacy, the studies indicate there is a narrow therapeutic margin between the doses that produce useful analgesia and those producing unacceptable adverse CNS effects.

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In the past decade, a number of movements to legalize the use of marijuana has been gaining momentum. According to the 2016 Gallup survey, a record high 60% of Americans say that marijuana should be legalized and this figure marks a 9% increase compared to 2014. Support for legalizing marijuana was 31% in 2000, 50% in 2016 before reaching 60% last year. This shows that despite government efforts to eliminate its use, marijuana is becoming more popular. It is clear that

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The legalization of marijuana has widespread benefits for the medical, law enforcement, and economic sectors. Marijuana has a variety of benefits in the medical field because it can control many side effects from different diseases. For instance, cancer is a deadly disease that kills over seven million people across the world every year. Patients diagnosed with cancer go through several painful treatments such as surgery and chemotherapy. Thankfully, marijuana helps to alleviate pain and suppress nausea from cancer treatments.

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Also many patients have reported that the usual prescribed pain medications given to them by their doctors do little to almost nothing to help take away their pain. So for many people, marijuana is one of the only things able to give them relief from the pain caused by their illnesses, and the fact that this drug is so far out of reach to suffering patients is wrong. One of the biggest advantages of medical marijuana is that it is all natural, and all the chemicals in it are naturally produced by growing the plant and extracting the chemicals from

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