Persuasive Essay On Legalizing Marijuana

925 Words4 Pages

In today’s society, marijuana is commonly utilized by many teens and adults. Whether it’s used for medical reasons or recreational use, it’s a huge controversy around the globe. Marijuana is a greenish-gray mixture of dried flowers of Cannabis Sativa. Recreational use of marijuana in the United States was banned in 1937 by the Marijuana Tax Act. In the United States, about 750,000 people are arrested for marijuana offenses each year. According to norml.org, “Marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and has been used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to government surveys, some 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana in the past year, and more than 14 million do so regularly despite laws against its use”. I believe marijuana should be legal because it’s great for medicinal reasons, it would be an increase of tax revenue and job opportunities, and it’s a lot safer than alcohol and cigarettes. Even though marijuana can impair your judgement and reaction time, especially while driving, it has many medicinal benefits. “Although cannabis intoxication has been shown to mildly impair psychomotor skills, this impairment does not appear to be severe or long lasting. In driving simulator tests, this impairment is typically manifested …show more content…

According to taxfoundation.org, “A mature marijuana industry could generate up to $28 billion in tax revenues for federal, state, and local governments, including $7 billion in federal revenue, $5.5 billion in business taxes and $1.5 billion from income and payroll taxes”. As far as job opportunities go, Colorado reports over 18,000 jobs, all from the legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana. There are several types of job, anything from crop growers to trimming the marijuana plant to the actual selling in