It seems that the United States is in the direction of legalizing marijuana nationwide. Many states have begun to legalize it in the past few years, and more continue to join. I hear a lot of positive remarks about this trend, but I believe my sources of information contain bias. I wanted to do my own independent research and analyze both sides of the debate to develop an opinion on this current issue.
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I will begin with the positives to legalizing marijuana. One positive is that the legalization would create jobs and have a positive impact on the formal economy rather than the illicit market as it currently is. In addition, states could put a tax on marijuana purchases and create more tax revenue for government spending. Another common argument is marijuana can be used for medicinal purposes. For cancer and AIDS patients, marijuana helps relieve nausea and increase appetite. Moreover, if you were to compare the effects of marijuana compared to alcohol and marijuana, you would find that marijuana is less addictive and better on just about every health metric. Lastly, the results of prohibition had an overall negative impact on American society by increased legal trouble, money moving into illicit markets rather than the American economy, and most importantly not stopping alcohol use. Many people see marijuana as a similar situation and believe legalizing it would only help American Society.
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On the other hand, there are many negative effects associated with marijuana use which is the primary argument against the legalization. For example, marijuana negatively effects cognitive function, short-term memory, coordination and balance, and can even produce hallucinations and delusions. Driving under the influence of marijuana is also becoming an issue as the number of fatal accidents has tripled in only the last decade. I cannot imagine the legalization would assist in dropping the number of fatal accidents and deaths. Furthermore, marijuana use increases the users chances of depression and anxiety. And if someone smokes marijuana on a regular basis, they are likely to operate at a lower intellectual level most if not all of the time. The effect that marijuana has on mental well-being does not seem worth legalizing.
Personally, I do not have enough information on the scientific validity of marijuana being used medicinally. If the science is valid, I do believe that people over the age of 18 should have access to medicinal marijuana. However, I do not believe marijuana should be legalized for recreational purposes. Legalization would not diminish marijuana use and we should not be encouraging this type of behavior as a country. Using marijuana simply allows the user to escape reality, and that is not a healthy way to live. Alcohol and tobacco might be equally as bad, if not worse, but they are so engrained into our culture that they would be impossible to remove at this point. Also, just because alcohol and tobacco are worse, does not mean that people would be better off if marijuana was legalized. Marijuana should only be legal in situations where it would have a positive impact on the user.
Sources:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/6-powerful-reasons-new-york-times-says-end-marijuana-prohibition
http://www.mjlegal.org/essayspeech.html
http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana-legalization-and-regulation
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