Blowing smoke; marijuana should be fully legalized The consumption and distribution of marijuana have been two very controversial subjects throughout the last century. Although some people may claim that the use of cannabis for recreational and medicinal purposes should be illegal due to safety, legalizing and decriminalizing marijuana would drastically reduce crime rates, help people suffering from chronic illnesses, and create a significantly higher amount of potential tax revenue to bolster the economic state of our nation. Many people argue that legalizing marijuana would encourage more people to smoke it. One cannot disregard that this may be true, though it does not necessarily have to be a bad thing. A main argument against the legalization of marijuana is the “slippery slope” argument. The slippery slope claim that marijuana is a gateway drug to harder, more dangerous substances is a logical fallacy in and of itself. The argument rests solely upon the assumption that if one tries marijuana, the logical next course of action one would take is to move on to cocaine, or heroin, or any other dangerous hallucinogen. This simply is not a valid claim to make. Certainly, some people who smoke marijuana will go on to do other drugs, but with more than 40% of Americans reporting that they have smoked marijuana once in their lives, it is evident that facts and statistics do not corroborate the slippery slope argument (Miliard). The likelihood that more than 40%