Marijuana Should Be Legal, And This Is Why essays

Marijuana Should Be Legal, And This Is Why essays Marijuana is the most heavily used illegal drug in the United States. One hundred million Americans have admitted to trying marijuana, with twenty-five million admitting to having used marijuana in the past year, making it the second most used recreational or mood altering drug. One of marijuanas chemicals, THC, causes loss of inhibition, a distorted sense of time, increased visual sensitivity, and heightened imagination. Under federal law, marijuana is classified as a schedule 1 drug and is a completely banned substance. Schedule 1 drugs are viewed as highly addictive and as having no medical value. Yet, in some states, a slim majority of citizens are pro- legalization of marijuana. The arguments for and against the legalization of marijuana are numerous. The anti-legalization campaign's base argument revolves around marijuana being a drug and, therefore, it being harmful to society. Marijuana is also a gateway drug, and a Senior Adviser for White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Director R. Gil Kerlikowske, stated that, Research uniformly reveals that, under legalization, the price of drugs would fall substantially, thereby increasing consumption. Any taxes gained on legal drugs would be quickly offset by the social costs resulting from this increased use: witness how today society receives about $1 in alcohol and tobacco tax revenue for every $10 lost on the social costs of those two legal drugs. Increased drug use means increased costs, including those born by American businesses as they deal with a high workforce, greater absenteeism and less productivity. This argument says that the cost of enforcing marijuana regulations after le galization would outweigh the tax revenue. Yet, science has evolved, and with it the arguments for legalization have advanced. The main arguments for the legalization of marijuana are that it is non-toxic and has little addictive tendency and contains...