FREE ESSAY ON LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

LEGALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

Legalization of Marijuana 
Marijuana is the dried flower clusters and leaves of the hemp plant when taken to induce
euphoria. Marijuana has been in existence for centuries even Magellan spoke of it during
his trip to India. In his log he spoke of a plant that you smoked that made a man drunk
without drinking. Marijuana would be beneficial if legalized because it would bring in
extra money, it has medical uses, hemp is one of the best materials in the world and on
average it is healthier for you then beer or liquor.
The old cash crop of the Americas was tobacco in today's world it is marijuana. More
marijuana is transported into and out of this country at a higher rate then tobacco. As
of last year there were 1,147,591 of seized marijuana by the United States Coast Guard.
If the average price of a pound of marijuana were only fifteen hundred dollars that would
put the price at 1,721,386,500 when the GNP (Gross National Product) for year two
thousand is projected at 17 billion. If marijuana were actually a taxed good at the
normal rate of five percent that would put the price up to 1,807,455,825 it would take
the price up a total of one hundred million dollars.
Not only would the legalization bring in more then nine percent of the GNP. It would take
the amount of drug dealing and money laundering due to dealing down. With this decrease
in crime the money spent on police could be put to better use. The police could spend
more time in trying to solve crimes such as murders or theft. 
Though in another area there would have to be a specific police unit to deal with these
new stores. The insurance rate would also be astronomically high due to break-ins and the
cost of the merchandise being sold. Though even now there are stores that do sell
"smoking accessories". I mean who honestly would smoke tobacco through a water bong. I've
never met a person who smokes tobacco through anything except a Sherlock pipe. 
These stores have been around for a long time and nothing extremely bad has ever happened
to one. There just another type of store that can be taxed and put its share towards GNP.
This is all a store that sold marijuana would do be taxed and brings its share of the
GNP. How can it be wrong to legalize it? When this would bring in a huge portion of money
to the US and put a large section of drug dealers out of work. Also the medicinal uses
are humongous. 
While marijuana kills absolutely no one aspirin kills up to one thousand people per year
and other prescription drugs kill up to twenty seven thousand people a year#. Also
cannabis has been proven to take down the risk of cancer and they show a lower rate of
illness then non-users#. Medical marijuana has been shown to relieve the symptoms that no
other prescription drug has been able to do. The uses that it has the potential are
amazing nothing else can compare to it except maybe penicillin. 
There is an amazing market for new medical drugs not just the development but the search
for the all-amazing wonder drug still continues. Marijuana could be this drug if it was
given a chance like every other drug it might surprise people but instead people try to
ignore it when it has so many aspects of it. Smoking marijuana has been proven to be the
most expedient method of use in medically needs.#
At first glance people hear the world legalization and they automatically think smoking
some pot. Yet there are many other#r aspects and reasons to legalize it. For one there
are many uses for hemp. It is one of the strongest rope's ever made it is cheaper then
normal rope and its faster to make. Hemp can also be used in the making of cloth. Hemp
produces an extremely rugged cloth product that can be used to make shirts and pants.
These products would be cheaper in production and sale, being the rugged durable fabric
it is they would probably last longer then normal clothes. 
With the average worldwide consumption of paper is up to two hundred and sixty million
tons a year. People are now looking towards hemp as a substitute for trees as paper. It
is cheaper and once again it is more durable paper then the paper made out of trees. This
would save the environment chiefly the trees. Hemp's THC content is point one to point
four percent was as marijuana that is smoked has a THC content of four percent up to
twenty percent. That's not enough to do anything to your body or mind. 
Hemp's growing season is a rotational plant, which will keep the ground together and soil
in an enriched state. Hemp also need no herbicides to grow which will keep the
environment safer then growing cotton for example.# Hemp's growth rate is amazing it
grows five to twenty feet in a three to four month growing cycle. This growth rate
suppresses the growth of weeds and is just one more added benefit. Not all legalization
contains the psychoactive ingredient it is also a source for cheap strong fibers; a way
to control weeds and enriches fields.
The strange thing in today's world people don't realize that drinking and smoking
cigarettes are just as bad even worse then simply smoking marijuana for recreational use.
For instance the amount of people who die per year due to marijuana are under ten
thousand deaths a year; were as alcohol kills one hundred thousand people annually and
tobacco is responsible for four hundred and fifty thousand deaths annually.# Marijuana
has not even been totally linked to the cancers it's supposed to create such as mouth
related, throat and lung. On the other hand alcohol has been linked without doubt to
exacerbate liver, heart disease, peptic ulcers, hepatitis, cancers, and physical
dependence.
Also marijuana has been said to cause brain damage when in reality there is no hard proof
that can be shown on this subject. The reports that have been highly publicized have been
proven false, such as the rhesus monkey study of Dr. Robert Heath#. This study was
performed in the late seventy's and was reviewed again in nineteen eighty-two. The study
was shown to have no true understanding of the monkey's brain in being able to determine
the normal brain to the damaged brain.. The control group was to small to consistening of
only four monkeys and there was an experimental bias. This study was torn apart by the
American Medical Association (AMA). 
In another comparison marijuana is no where near as addictive as cigarettes for instance.
Cigarettes have a ninety- percent addiction rate while marijuana is less addictive than
caffeine#. Marijuana in the non-smoked form is safer than the non-smoked form of
cigarettes, which is snuff or chew. The non-smoked version of marijuana is in many forms
one of the more popular types are bhang a Middle Eastern drink that contains an extract.
This drink is totally non-carcinogenic unlike chew, which causes mouths and throat
cancer. 
The addiction factor in marijuana is next to non-existent. The majority of people who
smoke marijuana do it socially and to relax. Even with the so-called addictive
personalities it is still not a leader, as some would have you think. On an average scale
the addiction of marijuana is less than that of sugar and chocolate but more so than that
of anchovies#. 
The gateway effect is a widely used term to express the false impression that marijuana
leads people to harder and harder drugs. This is a lie marijuana is not a "gateway" drug
it does not lead people to do crack, heroin or LSD. In Holland with the legalization of
marijuana the use of hardcore drugs has shown to decrease. If marijuana were a gateway
drug and it were legalized then the only thing that could logically happen would be that
the use of hardcore drugs (cocaine, heroin) would have increased. Yet the opposite
happened the harder drugs declined while marijuana did increase it took the place of
these drugs#. 
Some of the more uneducated people in the world talk about overdosing on marijuana this
next to impossible. If you take the dosage of alcohol to kill you the equal level of that
to cannabis would have to be multiplied by hundreds. Marijuana has been called the safest
therapeutically active substance known to man#.
One of the main things associated with "pot" smokers is chronic laziness. This is a
stereotypical misconception that was brought by Mexican borracho. Studies have shown that
the majority of responsible adults do not have this habit. Even the U.S. Army has done
studies on the subject and found no effect#.
When you look at all these facts that have been presented in a bias manor by the media
and the government. How can an argument be made against the legalization of marijuana?
The amount of money that it could bring in is unbelievable. The simple fact that the sale
of marijuana would bring in almost nine percent of today's GDP. That hemp could replace
half a dozen other fabrics, be cheaper to produce and even be more ecological. The sale
of hemp would be another factor to be brought up the first figure I had is just the sale
of smoked marijuana. The sale of hemp wasn't calculated into it that it would just bring
up the tax money and possibly take its percentage of GDP up to fifteen or at the most
eighteen percent. Medicinal uses of it outweigh by far the supposed cancers it produces.
If given the chance marijuana could be the next penicillin a miracle drug curing
sicknesses never thought to be curable. Marijuana the so-called gateway drug the highly
addictive drug, this was all a lie. Its been shown that marijuana is not even as
addictive as caffeine or chocolate. Cigarettes cause twice as many cancers as marijuana
and marijuana's non-smoked form causes no cancers while chew cigarettes non-smoking form
causes several oral cancers. If these reasons are enough for you to reconsider your view
on marijuana laws please visit http://www.norml.com and see what the truth is.