Legalization of Marijuana Arguments

Umair Shaikh

ENGL 15 Womack

November 11th, 2013

Legalize Marijuana: Pros and Cons

            Many people believe legalizing Marijuana is wrong and should not be an option at all. Arguments against marijuana consist of ideas such as: legalizing marijuana will give consent in legalizing other stronger and more harmful drugs, the use of marijuana will sky rocket once it is legal, traffic accidents and health hazards would increase. Marijuana “intensifies the effects of epilepsy and psychosis” (Kahler) which would cause many traffic accidents and the death toll would exceptionally increase. Also, making “marijuana lawful would encourage the legalization of stronger drugs such as hashish and hashish oil” (Kahler) and would cause more crimes in society. Finally, health hazards would increase exceptionally since “marijuana has 50% more tar than does tobacco” (Kahler). In addition, “smoking marijuana damages the brain, lungs and the male reproductive system” and “one joint can have the effect of 16 cigarettes because of pot smokers’ common habit of inhaling deeply and holding smoke in the lungs several seconds before exhaling” (Kahler).

On the other side of the argument, people believe that the legalization of marijuana would take a large amount of work load away from the authority. To legalize marijuana there needs to be laws enforced with the selling and the usage of the drug. Russell Wilson “introduced a bill to make marijuana legal, allow people to grow small amounts for personal use and subject sales to a 7 percent tax, with the revenue directed to law enforcement, agricultural programs, land preservation, weatherization and higher education” (Wilson). One main argument in allowing this bill to pass is that “legalization would save money by allowing police to concentrate on more serious crimes and reducing prison costs” (Wilson). On top of that, a large amount of money would be coming in as well since “marijuana is the state’s most valuable cash crop, worth an estimated $122 million a year” (Wilson).

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One Response to Legalization of Marijuana Arguments

  1. man5338 says:

    I love your topic and find it really interesting, and I like both of your arguments. I don’t like the citations. I’m pretty sure you can just put the guy’s name there ONCE at the end of the paragraph if all the information therein was from the same source. Also, you could definitely paraphrase more. Most of the paragraph isn’t constructed with your words, so where is YOUR voice? The first argument would be easier to write about in my opinion, but the second one is more interesting. We all know how marijuana is an entrance drug and blah blah blah; I want to know “what’s gucci” and I think the power point for the second argument would be better.

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