Stuart Gitlow Marijuana Legalization Analysis

An article recently posted on CNN caught my attention. Stuart Gitlow, wrote an article called “Marijuana legalization is a risk not worth taking” bashing the possible positive outcomes that can be brought from marijuana legalization and viewing this delicate situation from a very narrow point of view. The opinions presented are strictly Gitlow’s views, not brought about by anyone else. In this article, Gitlow starts out by comparing marijuana to cigarettes back in the 1980s. He references back to when he was in college and how he would see cigarette smokers everywhere. He then compares this to current day society, even though smoking rates have drastically dropped it still is a huge problem. He tries to basically say that if marijuana is legalized

In the start of the article he tries and imply that if marijuana is legalized that it will end in the same outcome that cigarettes did. Marijuana cannot only be used for recreational use but also can be prescribed as a form of prescription medicine to treat several illnesses, pains, and diseases, which was not addressed to the audience. If he did then readers would have a little background knowledge on this drug. Furthermore would a man with a PhD or such a high degree prescribe something that can possibly hurt his or her patients? These doctors and physicians are the ones who see marijuana as a medicine not as a dangerous drug. Comparing marijuana to cigarettes is not a good claim Gitlow made. When have you ever heard of someone using nicotine products to treat a disease or illness? Nicotine products are the cause of many illnesses or diseases and even death. Yes, marijuana can cause COPD as Gitlow states but who says you have to smoke marijuana to get the positive effects from it? There are many different ways you can ingest the THC from marijuana into your system without smoking it. You can eat THC edibles, drink THC drinks, takes TCH pills and many more forms are available to avoid smoking marijuana to get its affects. The article lacks an enormous amount of information that would assist the reader to make a decision if marijuana is indeed bad and should not be

“Since only a small percentage of state prisoners are there for marijuana offenses, how much would we be saving in criminal justice costs?”(Gitlow 2015) He is basically saying that some help is the same as no help. I hope the audience would view his opinions on this negatively so judges can stop giving shorter sentences to criminal who deserves longer ones for violent acts. Marijuana is legal to buy in the states of Washington and Colorado but there are still 48 states yet to jump on the bandwagon. Those that believe marijuana should be legalized feel it would alleviate our criminal justice system, overcrowding in jails, and save billions of taxpayer dollars. Illegal sales would not exist to such a high extent as they are right now. This would make all criminal activity associated with it null and void. The justice system could then focus on other issues that are having a real impact on our