“Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States(SAMHSA,2014)”(drug abuse). Marijuana affects how the brain develops, and can affect the user's learning functions. Many say that only good can come from legalizing marijuana, but that's not the case marijuana can be very harmful if it were to be legalized. Marijuana can change a person’s mood and affect their senses and their sense of time. There has been an ongoing debate about whether or not marijuana should be legalized. Those who are for marijuana say that it can cure cancer. The fact is that marijuana cannot cure cancer, it can only help with chemotherapy, but that is medical marijuana which is already legal. When marijuana is smoked it can cause breathing problems because the smoke irritates the lungs. …show more content…
Those who use marijuana often come to depend on the drug, leading to an addiction. “In 2011, approximately 4.2 million people met the diagnostic criteria for abuse or dependence on marijuana”(Public Health). The use of marijuana has been considered to be associated with respiratory illness and addiction. A major cause of hospital visits is because of marijuana and “ is also the second leading substance for which people receive drug treatment”. Studies showed that in the past twenty years the use of marijuana had nearly tripled. If marijuana were to be legalized the use of marijuana would increase due to the increase of availability and acceptability. We see this with alcohol and tobacco, which are used more often than illegal drugs due the availability. With this growth in the consumption of marijuana public health and financial cost would increase. Alcohol and tobacco are both legal and taxed, they result in a higher social cost than the revenue they produce. Alcohol by itself is approximated to cost the society fifteen times the actual revenue gained by their