Legalization of Marijuana

First of all, alcohol is legal. Once you are of the appropriate age, you can drink, purchase, and if you are licensed, sell or even manufacture alcohol. However, it is illegal to do any of these things with marijuana. Some people may try to tell you this is because marijuana is worse. However, this is simply not the case. Alcohol has been linked with a wide variety of cancers, including cancers of the esophagus, stomach, colon, lungs, pancreas, liver, and prostate. Marijuana has not been conclusively linked with any form of cancer. People may also try to tell you that marijuana is more deadly. However, no one has ever died from a cannabis overdose. Someone would have to consume twenty-thousand to forty-thousand times the amount of THC (The part of marijuana that makes you high) in a joint order to be at risk from dying. The CDC reports that excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths in the United States over the course of one year. The reported deaths from excessive marijuana use? Zero. Even according to the CDC, the effects of marijuana are similar to that of tobacco smokers over a short period of time and more serious long term effects (Such as Cancer) are only "Indicated" not proven. And still, this is listed under " known or suspected chronic effects of marijuana". This evidence against marijuana is not sound. Out of drug arrests in 2012, around half of them were for marijuana. That is seven-hundred fifty thousand people. Also, out of those arrests, more than 87% were for simple posession, not sale or manufacture. More arrests are made for marijuana possession every year than all violent crimes combined. According to a Huffington Post article, legalization could save the US $13.7 Billion a year. This is enough money to give every man, woman, and child in Carlsbad about five-hundred forty-thousand dollars. This is a huge amount of money, and as I'm sure everyone knows, our government doesn't have any money to be wasting. This money could be spend on more important and pressing matters, such as education, medical research, better infrastructure, or enforcing laws against violent crimes. A common argument against marijuana is that it is the "Gateway Drug" which basically means that marijuana use leads to the use of harder drugs. This is a misconception cause due to the fact that marijuana is the most easily accessible illegal drug, and therefor users of less accessible drugs, such as heroin, are more likely to have used marijuana. The majority of people who use marijuana never use any other illegal drug. Also, recent studies indicate that marijuana can function as an exit drug, helping people stop using more harmful drugs by easing withdrawal symptoms. marijuana is not the gateway to drug use, and it is sometimes the way out. Marijuana also has undeniable medical uses. Marijuana has been shown to alleviate symptoms of a wide range of debilitating medical conditions including cancer, HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, PTSD, epilepsy, Crohn's Disease, and glaucoma. The University of California says that marijuana should be a first line drug for treating some diseases. More then just a practical argument for legalization, there is also a moral argument. The War on Drugs has led to thousands of people being sent to prison for committing non-violent and victim-less crimes. This means they were sent to prison even though they hurt no one. You could say that they were hurting themselves, but even then, shouldn't someone have the right to make their own decisions if they are the only ones harmed. Yes, it might be harmful, but people have a right to exercise personal responsibility. Drug addicts should be treated as if they have a problem and not like criminals. If someone abuses alcohol, they are said to have a mental problem and are not considered criminals, even though alcoholism is just as bad as abusing many illegal drugs. In fact, almost everyone here would think the notion of alcoholics or smokers being criminals is absurd, but most people think that marijuana users are. How could someone who has not hurt anyone but themselves be a criminal? A criminal is someone who has violated the rights of others and thus needs to be constrained so they don't harm anyone. Then why should someone be confined to a prison cell for smoking marijuana? More then that, how will locking them up for many years of their life make them a better person? Should they spend years in a jail cell just so they gets the message that drugs are bad? Where's the logic in that? People abusing drugs should go to rehab to overcome their addiction, not be locked behind bars like murders and rapists.