Persuasive Essay On Legalizing Marijuana

Julian Gray

Ms. Cooney

English CP10

28 February 2017

Federal Marijuana Legalization

Marijuana can save lives. It lowers suicide rates in about every state it's been legalized in. It's hard to hang yourself when you forget how to tie the knot.Marijuana is currently labeled as a class 1 drug. Meaning it has no possible medical uses. Hemp, a part of the cannabis sativa family that is specifically used for industrial uses, was a main staple of farms in North America since the colony of Jamestown where England decreed that every landowner would grow 100 hemp plants. George washington grew hemp as one of the three plants he grew on his farm on Mount Vernon. Hemp was a mainstay for everything from sails for ships to paper all the way through the

The bigger farms that used white labor would commonly look down on the smaller farms that used the less expensive mexican labor and dissent quickly grew between the two groups. Soon the more powerful big landowners had the law changed and in 1915 California labeled cannabis as a poison and illegal. Quickly many of the western states followed in California’s example and put marijuana under the same title. Many people believe that the initial label of poison on marijuana is largely due to racism. The language changed but the law mainly stayed the same then in 1969 the controlled substance act was passed when the supreme court labeled the marijuana legalization act as unconstitutional and through the act the government labeled the plant cannabis sativa as a class 1 drug. Marijuana continued to be seen as an unhealthy and dangerous drug until very recently when , being the first state to do so, Colorado legalized the recreational usage of marijuana. Marijuana should be federally legalized because it has health benefits, it has beneficially affects the economy, and although some say it would lead to an

Jacob Sullum States, “NSDUH data indicated that adolescent consumption in Colorado fell after state-licensed marijuana stores began serving the recreational market”(Sullum). This is important because it is the true and up to date numbers and facts on the underage usage of marijuana in legalized states. The argument commonly used by the opposition would be frightening indeed if it were true but that article is both 3 years old and was written during a time where the almost the entire republican party had united in their war against marijuana. When actually as soon as dispensaries started supplying the recreational market the rate of underage usage dropped significantly leading to a drop in prosecutions.Peter Edwards at the Toronto star quotes, "”A pretty small part of the marijuana industry today is what I call organized crime," said criminologist Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser University - a change from a few decades ago, when criminals thrived in the pot trade”(Edwards). This is important because a criminologist someone who studies criminals and the rates of crimes is stating that the federal legalization of marijuana would lead to a HUGE drop in organized criminalization of marijuana. The legalization of marijuana would not only help the federal economy it would hurt the economy of