Marijuana Persuasive Speech

Growing up most kids are told that “drugs are bad for you”, time and time again. As a kid you don’t understand why, you just believe it because your authority figures are telling you so. I can remember being told this my entire life, and still to this day. When I was younger I could never understand why people would go against the law and jeopardize their whole life just to use drugs. The drug I am talking about is cannabis, popularly known as marijuana or weed. It is all around us and has been for hundreds and hundreds of years. Mainstream media poses the drug as a threat and a nuisance to society, but having my own personal experiences with the drug, and knowing it effects on myself and others I wonder why it is not legal. The debate

It is known to give users a “high” or euphoric feeling when ingested, and is illegal in most parts of the world. Some places are very strict with marijuana laws and some are more lenient. In today’s age more and more people are deciding to side with pro marijuana legalization for the United States. There are many reasons why people are choosing to side with pro legalization of marijuana and one of them is because of its benefits as a medicinal drug. Some states have already taken the step to legalize marijuana for medicinal use however many have not. Canada is one other country that has legalized medicinal marijuana use. (procon.org). Medical marijuana has been proven to help symptoms of many diseases and disorders. Over 100,000 people die from prescription drug use each year in the united states, yet they are used in the every day practice of medicine. (ibtimes.com) There has never been one recorded death due to overdose of marijuana. In 2006, the Scripps Research Institute in California did a study and came to the conclusion that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in cannabis, can stop an enzyme called acetylcholinesterase from speeding up the formation of Alzheimer's plaques in the brain, as well as protein clumps that can inhibit memory, more effectively than massively marketed prescription drugs.