Medical as well as recreational marijuana should be legal in all US states

Section 1: Marijuana can be very addictive to some people. Dr. Drew Pinsky has been working with addicts for years. He claims that it would be malpractice to say that cannabis isn't addictive. Even though it can take a long time for the addiction to kick it, the "high" will eventually stop coming, causing users to smoke more and more just to get the "high" back. This is when the problems start. According to Dr. Pinsky, those who are addicted to cannabis, have the most difficulties getting off of it. According to his statistics, 4.3 million persons out of 7.3 million persons, have marijuana dependence or abuse. He also points out that the more legal it become, the higher that number will increase. Amsterdam has already legalized pot, and it isn't as much of a success as people may think. Citizens are worried about their children being exposed to the drug, which they have the right to. Until recently, kids would smoke marijuana right before going to class. To add to that, crime has began to center around coffee shops. Ever since they became member only shops and closed down around schools, crime has increased around these shops, especially the human sex trade. Also, shops are given a death knell if they sell pot to a non-Dutch citizen. Death Knell : The tolling of a bell to mark someone's death Marijuana can damage your intelligence. A Northwestern University found that marijuana users have an abnormal brain structure and chronic marijuana abuse can lead to brain changes similar to schizophrenia. In an report against the legalization of marijuana, the American Medical Association said that use of cannabis by adolescence causes persistent impairments in neurocognitive performance and IQ. They also state that the use is usually associated with increased rates of anxiety, mood and psychotic thought disorders. And this doesn't just happen when the user high. Schizophrenia: a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation. Marijuana is more toxic than cigarette smoke. In fact, users are usually hit with the devastating effects some 20 years before regular smokers do (cigarette smokers). Marijuana causes sterility, as well as birth defects, mental abnormalities and increased risk of leukemia in children. Though it is safer than crack and meth, you're still deluding yourself if you think pot is anything but horrible for your health. While movies portray potheads as cool, laid back people, real life pot heads are flunking out of school, losing their jobs, losing the people they love and becoming frustrated because they can't concentrate. A study of 129 college students found that casual, almost daily, smoking of marijuana diminishes critical skills related to attention, memory and learning. Another study has shown that when employees were (or are) on marijuana, there are 55% more accidents, 85% more injuries and a 75% increase of absences from work. Again, another study has shown that marijuana is the cause of 4.3% of all driver fatalities in Australia. Legalizing marijuana will cause even more damage. Aren't cigarettes and alcohol bad enough? Legalizing marijuana may not cause a lot of deaths (unless you're a child), but it can greatly damage our country. We'd eventually lose our workforce which will damage our economy even more than it already is. . http://townhall.com... . https://www.google.com... . https://www.google.com... Section 2: * Marijuana is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). This is because it doesn't meet their criteria for medication (quantity, frequency/duration of administration, and interaction with other medicines). They also bring up the point that smoking has never been an accepted method of administering any medicine. * A study shows that in all the states that have legalized marijuana, there has been an increase in the rate of 12-17 year old's using it. Marijuana is the most illicitly used drugs among the youth and adults of our nation. According to the 2012 Monitoring the Future Survey, 45.2% of high school seniors have tried pot while 22.9% have smoked it in the last 30 days. Though 6.5% of high school seniors smoke marijuana, I'm sure the numbers are bound to increase with the further legalization this drug. * The rate of addiction and abuse would obviously rise with the legalization of marijuana. That's a given. * The marijuana trade would eventually grow, and possibly begin advertising to children. That's apparently already a problem in Colorado. * This goes back to the increase in problems in jobs. All those increases in accidents and injuries cause companies to pay a lot of money in insurance. It would be much cheaper to let the addicts go, and that's probably what will happen. Again, this would shorten our workforce and eventually ruin the economy. * No one has succeeded in defining the kind of pain that marijuana, and many other supposed "pain killers" are supposed to get rid of, or hide. This has caused a problem called pill mills, which is a doctor's office, clinic, or health care facility that routinely conspires in the prescribing and dispensing of controlled substances outside the scope of the prevailing standards of medical practice in the community or violates the laws of the state of Florida regarding the prescribing or dispensing . .. They don't have any limits of how much is handed out, and they make it easier to get addicted. Adding pot shops will just make things worse. Consequences that people are expecting from this include, selling to minors, deaths, increased noise, increased crime (robberies namely), and loss of commercial businesses that don't approve of marijuana. . https://www.google.com... * Marijuana is damaging the environment. Pot farms have killed a lot of animals, and other sorts of wildlife anywhere near them. This is because of all the chemical pesticides that are used in growing marijuana. These toxicants may eventually get into us. The chemicals can easily get into deer, cattle and other such meat that we eat. Once we eat that meant, those chemicals are unknowingly put into our bodies. This will cause more deaths as the chemicals will make us very sick and kill us. * Black market sales would increase. Since marijuana would be legal for adults to purchase as they please, there would be only one group of people left to illegally sell to. .. The children. This will cause them to become addicted at a young age and ruin their futures. So, if we legalize marijuana, we put our children at risk of probably doing more harm to the world than the previous generation and possibly my generation. . http://dfaf.org... Conclusion: As you have read, marijuana destroys economies (or at least, it can), it has wrecked havoc on an entire country and their children, and can destroy any country's economy. Out of all the reasons, the children are what I'm worried about most. No matter who you are, or what you think, you can't deny that you, like the rest of us, hope that our children and the future generations do better than we did. But if we legalize marijuana, that can't happen. Legalizing marijuana would be one of the biggest mistake our generation has ever made, and it may never be fixed. Now I'd like the readers to ask themselves. Do I want my kids to drop out of school? Do I want them to have a good future? Thank you