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Michael De La Fuente

Dunham 4th

Government

5/8/18

Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized

In today’s society, a large portion of the population is influenced by marijuana. It’s all

over social media, celebrities endorse it, it is just something that is considered the new trend of

2018. It has been historically recorded that great and intelligent men like George Washington

and William Shakespeare were involved with Marijuana. One of the most common

misconceptions about marijuana is that it is a gateway drug, but studies show that people who

use marijuana first before trying other drugs is correlation and not causation. People who go one

to use harder drugs tend to smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol before they try other substances.

There are so many benefits that the drug Marijuana offers to society. It could have a huge

impact on the economy, in Colorado and Washington they got better than expected sales and

resulted in outstanding tax revenues. Colorado collected more than $135 million in taxes and

fees on medical and recreational marijuana. Sales in North America grew up to 30%, or $6.7

billion and is projected to increase to $20.1 billion by 2021. Marijuana has outstanding medicinal

usage and can be used as a powerful medication. Media reports have touted it as a miracle cure,

and there is a growing population of parents who attempt to treat their children’s seizure

disorders with CBD oil. And it works. Cannabis has no known lethal dose, it is easily dosed via

orally ingestion, vaporization, or topical absorption, which is avoiding the potential risks
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associated with smoking completely. There are so many amazing benefits that go along with the

legalization of Marijuana.

Many government officials do not support the use of medical marijuana. The FDA has

said there is sound evidence that smoking marijuana is harmful. The FDA says that they have

concluded that no scientific studies supported the safety or efficacy of marijuana for general

medical use, and that there are “other proposed uses” than smoking marijuana. The National

Institute of Drug Abuse states that Marijuana smoke, like tobacco smoke, is an irritant to the

throat and lungs and can cause a heavy cough during use. The institute states they found a study

where frequent marijuana smokers used more sick days than other people often because of

respiratory illnesses.

Barack Obama himself stated, “I’m on record saying that not only do I think carefully

prescribed medical use of marijuana may in fact be appropriate and we should follow the science

as opposed to ideology on this issue, but i'm also on record as saying that the more we treat some

of these issues related to drug abuse from a public health model and not just from an

incarceration model, the better off we’re going to be.” The 44th president himself stated that we

should follow the science behind medical marijuana. Lester Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School

Professor, states there is little evidence smoking marijuana as a means of taking it represents a

SIGNIFICANT health risk. Marijuana has been smoked in the Western Countries for more than

40 years, and there have been no reported cases of lung cancer of emphysema attributed to

marijuana.

In conclusion, there really is no bad things about marijuana. There’s a wide variety of

concrete evidence that should give the legalization of marijuana a go. Many powerful men and
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women smoke it today, and have been smoking it for thousands of years. I believe that the main

reason that people don’t support the legalization of marijuana, is because they simply don’t

understand it. After all, it’s just weed.

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Works Cited

● This Is Why Marijuana Should Be Legal Everywhere 

○ "This Is Why Marijuana Should Be Legal Everywhere." H

​ uffPost UK​. N. p., 
2013. Web. 11 May 2018. 

● The Economic Benefits of Legalizing Weed 

○ Krishna, Mrinalini. "The Economic Benefits Of Legalizing Weed." ​Investopedia​. 

N. p., 2016. Web. 11 May 2018. 

● Top 10 Pro & Con Arguments - Medical Marijuana - ProCon.org 

○ "Top 10 Pro & Con Arguments - Medical Marijuana - Procon.Org." 

Medicalmarijuana.procon.org​. N. p., 2018. Web. 11 May 2018. 

● Is Marijuana a Medical Miracle? The Truth is We Still Don’t Know 

○ Halperin, Alex. "Is Marijuana A Medical Miracle? The Truth Is, We Still Don't 
Know." ​the Guardian​. N. p., 2018. Web. 11 May 2018.