The Pros And Cons Of Legalizing Marijuana

Why Is Marijuana Illegal? For as long as I can remember, I have been taught that Marijuana is a gateway drug, it is bad for you, and that is why it’s illegal. After researching this topic, I have come to find out that the true reason for marijuana being illegal may be much more complicated than that. In fact, a large majority of the events that lead to illegalizing marijuana may come to you as a complete and utter shocker. Let’s starts off with some numbers. Did you know that there is not a single documented case of marijuana causing someone to die? That may not seem to mean much, but when you start comparing that to other legal substances death rates, the reality may be shocking. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention,

The parents of the U.S. were terrified.” (Harri, 2016). Considering the gruesomeness and severity of this event, it’s needless to say, it was a highly effective tactic. Oddly enough, “Years later, somebody went and looked at the psychiatric files for Victor Licata. It turns out there’s no evidence he ever used cannabis. He had a lot of mental illness in his family… His psychiatrists never even mentioned marijuana in connection to him.”. To discredit the idea of marijuana being harmful once again, Harry Anslinger at the time, “wrote to the 30 leading scientists on this subject, asking if cannabis was dangerous, and if there should be a ban. Twenty-nine wrote back and said no.”. (Harri,

Let’s talk about one of the most common responses today to this question, “it’s a gateway drug”. Is that really true? To my surprise, not quite so. In fact, “the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, "harder" substances (NIH, 2017)”. Another thing I hear is that marijuana is addictive. According to one of New York Times authors, Phillip Boffey, “Marijuana isn’t addictive in the same sense as heroin…but it can interact with pleasure senses in the brain and can create a strong sense of psychological dependence that addiction experts say can be very difficult to break.” (Boffey, 2014). However, Boffey also mentions, though nobody is saying, “marijuana is harmless…its downsides are not reasons to impose criminal penalties on its possession. Particularly not in a society that permits nicotine use and celebrates drinking”. After reading those terrible numbers earlier about alcohol death rates, I am sure you all could agree with that