Marijuana has been a topic of great controversy for years. More and more states have been creating their own laws to make it more easily accessible, but this is all in vain. While states are receiving more power than federal ones on this issue, marijuana is still considered illegal throughout the country due to federal laws. It makes sense for marijuana should be controlled federally, but the federal control placed on it should leave a great deal of breathing room for the states to decide how they want to handle it. This point of view can be justified by looking at the way other drugs are controlled and the effect marijuana itself has. Marijuana itself is not a dangerous harmful drug and is handled with much more severity than really necessary. Due to the Controlled Substances Act that was passed in 1970, marijuana is considered a Schedule 1 drug, indicating the drugs is highly addictive and has no medical purposes at it. This means marijuana is considered just as dangerous as hard drugs, such as ecstasy, LSD, and even heroin. This is ridiculous, as …show more content…
The Drug Enforcement Agency is a federal agency, specializing solely on regulating drug use. Marijuana is a drug, and therefore should be considered the same as any other drug. It would be unfair to disconnect marijuana from all of the other drugs and make it a state issue. A law should be considered unjust if it doesn't make sense or is hypocritical, and that is what making marijuana a Schedule 1 drug is. The federal government should make it a Schedule V drug, as it is not dangerous, extremely addictive, and has medical purposes. If it has this level of control, the rest should be left up to the states whether or not they want to control it more harshly. In 2009, Obama even encouraged federal prosecutors not to prosecute anyone distributing marijuana that is in compliance with state