The United States Should Legalize Marijuana for Recreational Use

Marijuana is Relatively Harmless: Americans can enjoy alcohol, tobacco, fast food, etc. with no fear of facing any punishment (as long as they are following regulations regarding the first two). So for something to be illegal, one would think it would have to be seriously bad for you. This is one of the main problems with having marijuana illegal, it is no worse for someone compared to many other things Americans can consume. In the US, the average death rate of alcohol poisoning yearly is 2,221 deaths. (1) Tobacco is even worse, seeing as it causes 1 in 5 every death in the US annually. (2) For marijuana to be illegal, one would think it would have to cause just as many deaths or have the potential to if legal. However, that’s impossible. Although there is some debate on the exact amount of marijuana one would need to consume to overdose on it, all conclusions agree it would be practically impossible to do so. Some of these studies say you’d need to consume: 1500lbs worth all at once, 20,000-40,000 times the amount of marijuana in one marijuana cigarette all at once, or one third of your body weight in pounds of it all at once. (3) It’d be even easier to overdose on water! (4) As for long term effects, although marijuana has some negative ones, alcohol and tobacco have a lot (possibly more) as well. (5, 6) 1- http://www.cdc.gov... 2- http://www.cdc.gov... 3- http://druglibrary.org... 4- http://www.medicaldaily.com... 5- http://www.drugfreeworld.org... 6- http://www.cancer.org... Prohibition Violates Freedom: Another problem with having marijuana illegal, even if one argues it is dangerous enough to be illegal, is that it goes against the principles on which the US was founded on. The Declaration of Independence mentions that everyone has the unalienable right to liberty. (1) I’ll show how prohibiting use of marijuana violates one’s right to liberty. Defining liberty can be difficult, but the Law Dictionary, based on Supreme Court cases, defines liberty as, “Freedom; exemption from extraneous control. The power of the will, in its moral freedom, to follow the dictates of its unrestricted choice, and to direct the external acts of the individual without restraint, coercion, or control from other persons.” (2) Notice it says nothing about what you do to yourself. This is why marijuana should be legal, you are not directly harming others by choosing to take it. 1- http://www.archives.gov... 2- http://thelawdictionary.org... Importance of Regulation: Even if both my previous arguments are rejected, marijuana should still be legal. Con may think that having marijuana be illegal will protect people from themselves. That’s simply not true. Nearly 100,000,000 Americans admit to having used marijuana and over 14,000,000 admit to using it regularly, despite laws against it. (1) Clearly, people will use it regardless and the best way to protect people is to have it legal. Why? Because it can be regulated. Marijuana regulation is crucial. Without the ability to regulate it, countless chemicals, toxins, and other drugs can be added to the product prior to selling it. This can make long term effects a lot more dangerous, adding more drugs to increase chances of becoming addicted, and possibly even kill you. (2, 3, 4) Plus, many people don’t know how many chemicals are actually in weed. There’s a common belief that it’s simply a plant and it’s all natural. However, if like cigarettes, the ingredients and warnings were listed, these people may be deterred from usage. As mentioned above, marijuana itself is not any worse than tobacco or alcohol, but having it illegal can make it so much worse than it has to be. If people are going to smoke it anyways, it makes sense for the government to want to make it safer (which legalizing it will). 1- http://norml.org... 2- http://www.cesar.umd.edu... 3- http://www.canada.com... 4- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... Education is Superior to Bans: This is a chart that shows usage of common recreational drugs among high school seniors since 1975. As can be seen, alcohol and cigarette usage have dropped much more than marijuana has (which seems to have been going mostly up since the 1990s). In fact, this chart also shows how since 1965, marijuana arrest rates have increased dramatically. Why is it preventing marijuana usage has been so hard despite all the laws against it, yet cigarettes have been decreasing so much? It’s because of how effective anti-tobacco campaigns are. (1) In fact, just recently in 2012 the CDC launched an anti-smoking campaign which helped cause over 100,000 smokers to quit. (2) If the government focussed on spending money spent to keep marijuana illegal (more on that later) on anti-marijuana campaigns, then the results would likely be much more successful. 1- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov... 2- http://www.tobaccofreekids.org... War on Drugs: The War on Drugs has been a massive failure (of which marijuana is a huge part of). Since it started, the US has spent about $1.5 trillion dollars on it. (1) However, as I showed last argument it hasn’t even really dropped usage. Plus it has also led to increases in violent crime, because it gives criminals another industry which they can compete and operate in. (2) Not much else needs to be said. Keeping drugs like marijuana illegal has not dropped usage, but has only led to more crime and a lot more money spent. 1- http://www.thewire.com... 2- http://drugpolicy.ca... Taxation: Finally, the revenues from an industry such as marijuana is huge. Since marijuana has become legal in Washington state, $70,000,000 have been raised in taxes. (1) If it were legal across the country, much more revenue could be made (such as paying for anti-marijuana campaigns which are more effective). http://www.businessinsider.com...