Ma’Quan Wood
Professor Jenn Sloggie
English 211C
13 April 2018
Marijuana Legalization
The problem that America has been investigating over the years is legalization of marijuana and also the criminalization. This topic seems to be very important to anyone who’s interested in Marijuana and also who uses the drug for recreational uses. This topic is important because a lot of people spend time using and learning what this drug do. Many people love it and many people don’t but the drug itself have many unique ways of being used. It’s very helpful in the society. Marijuana has been here for centuries and research shows thats it has been proven to help others. It’s important to because it helped many people out in life and data shows what it has done to others.
Marijuana is a drug that is always being talked about all over the media. There is constant debate on whether it should be legalized or not. Also, debate on if it were to be legalized, how would they make it work. All these questions are things the government takes into account every day. There is a big divide between people’s beliefs on this matter. Some people think it should be, others think it shouldn’t, and some think it should be with some modifications on the usage. When you look at the benefits, there is no question that marijuana should be legal throughout the entire country. There are way more positive things that could come out of it being legal.
Marijuana has become legal in a few states across the United States. Many people love that they made that decision but a lot regret it. Marijuana has been here for centuries and nobody has appeared to had passed away from it. Marijuana should be legal across the United States because research shows that it helps out in tremendous ways. Many people have experienced this drug and realized that it has helped out in so many ways that are not deadly.
Cannabis, or weed, has been around for quite a long time. This little green plant is developed in numerous areas over the world. Weed is produced using the blossoming best of the Cannabis plant. It contains the chemical Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which causes mind-adjusting states among pot clients. THC has been known to fluctuate in strength in various kinds of the Cannabis Sativa plant. Marijuana can be gone back as far as 6000 B.C. at the point when its seeds were utilized as a part of the sustenance of China. During the times of Napoleon, it was utilized for its pain-relieving systems and narcotic impacts. Weed is likewise utilized for its psychoactive impacts.
Most of the THC known as (Tetrahydrocannabinol) effects the brain where the chemical interacts with receptors on brain cell. The human body actually make chemicals that are very similar to THC, they are used in the normal brain function and development. Researchers show that the ingredient called “Hippocampus” tends to alter the way information is processed and how memories are formed. This Blockage of memory formation can cause cognitive impairment in adulthood if used in early stage. Marijuana has a huge impact on the human brain that can effects in ways people feel as if it is harmless to them.
Marijuana has been utilized to actuate changes in mood and conscious as well to relax. There have been studies indicating that the use of marijuana and the Cannabis Sativa plant may help to reduce the symptoms of certain ongoing medical conditions. Some of the major findings indicate that it helps glaucoma, cancer, and multiple sclerosis patients. Other studies have disputed these claims. Research has shown that using marijuana does reduce nausea and vomiting in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. This is why some people are prescribed medical marijuana. It’s a proven fact that it cures seizures, cancers, vomiting, headaches, and many more.
Most of all if the drug was legalized the society would be a better place and would also make a lot of money. Research shows that a mature marijuana industry could generate up to $28 billion in tax revenue for federal, state, and local government. A federal tax of $23 dollars per pound of product, that’s similar to the federal tax on tobacco, that could generate $500 million per year. If you also charge a 10 percent surtax that would generate $5.3 billion per year. Thats a lot of revenue that the state, federal, and local government is missing out without legalizing.
Legalizing and regulating marijuana will bring one of the nation’s largest cash crops under the rule of law. This will create jobs and economic opportunities in the formal economy instead of the illicit market. Also, the scarce law enforcement resources will be better used to ensure public safety while reducing corrections and court costs. State and local governments would acquire significant new sources of tax revenue from regulating marijuana sales. Marijuana product testing is becoming a standard requirement for legalized marijuana markets. This means consumers are better informed about the marijuana they use.
Therefore, colorado anticipated 70 million tax collections per year, after a slow initial start. The State collections went up to $140 million in the year of 2016. If all states legalized and taxed marijuana, states could collectively expected to raise between $5 billion and $18 billion per. That means that an estimated current size of the marijuana market nationally is $45 billion per year, approximately .28 percent of gross domestic product product and comprising some 26 million pounds of marijuana consumed per year. By the year of 2020, colorado’s marijuana industry should surpass tobacco as the state’s largest excise revenue source, but cannabis sales also should reach a outstanding point. In the coming years, that growth rate will slow to about 11.3 percent as the shift of black and gray markets sales near completion.
Over the past few years marijuana has started to become more legal and decriminalized in many states. Each year the U.S. spend annually more than 50 billion a year on drug war. Data shows that there were more than 600 thousands arrest due to marijuana, 89 percent of those arrest were incarcerated. In 2016, america had incarcerated for 2 million people due to marijuana charges. That year was the highest incarceration rate in the world. That mean a cop made a arrest every other minute. According to data charts and graphs marijuana account for over half of all drug arrests in the United States. There was 8.2 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010, 88% were just for possession.
However, while more than 18 states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes until recently marijuana for recreational purposes remained illegal. The most significant points of view is the youth getting onto the drug and how would they tax on the drug. The recent argument i came across was the health issue. We may not see the effect of it now but it puts a nice little toll on your brain. The younger you are the more it affects the brain. The results of using marijuana may help you out but it depends on the strain that you use. Different strains have different side effects.
Therefore, there should be a strict age limit to prevent it from affecting the youth. The drug itself has a natural effect to the brain but it is worse for the youths brain. It bad for youth because the brain isn’t fully developed yet. Research shows that the one who smoke marijuana at young tend to get lower grades and may more likely to dropout of high school than their peers who do not use. Also marijuana tend to affect the youth the mental health issue. Marijuana use has been linked to a range of mental health problems in teens such as depression and anxiety. Psychosis has been seen in teens at higher risk like those with a family with bad history. In short term, marijuana use has been shown to impair functions such as attention, memory, learning, and decision-making. Heavy marijuana use in adolescence or early adulthood has been associated with a dismal set of life outcomes.There are some reasons to think that adolescents may be uniquely susceptible to lasting damage from marijuana use, at least until the early or mids 20’s because the brain is still under construction.
Marijuana can have regulation so no one would have any issues with it becoming legalized. Marijuana use, misuse, and abuse can also be addressed by instituting time and place restrictions on commercial sales and imposing liability risk on commercial marijuana retailers. Another regulation towards the legalization of marijuana is the age limit, that should be set at 21. That is a mature age because the human body tends to hit its peak of developing and the brain is more at a stage where it wouldn’t affect it as much. However, these action could provide protection to consumers that aren’t of age.
Medical uses would be different for ages because it was prescribed to the individual for health reason. The drug could be giving to them with different level of THC. THC can increase appetite and reduce nausea. It helpful towards reducing pain, inflammation, controlling epileptic seizures, and even treating mental illness. Evidence from from one cell culture study suggest that purified extracts from whole-plant marijuana can slow the growth of cancer cells from one of the most serious types of brain tumors. Medical marijuana would help out in a tremendous way. Also There are a number of positive patient reports on medical conditions that cannot be easily assigned to the above categories, such as pruritus, hiccup, ADS (attention deficit syndrome), high blood pressure, tinnitus, chronic fatigue syndrome, restless leg syndrome, and others. Several hundreds possible indications for cannabis and THC have been described by different authors. For example, 2.5 to 5 milligrams of THC were effective in three patients with pruritus due to liver diseases. Another example is the successful treatment of a chronic hiccup that developed after a surgery. No medication was effective, but smoking of a cannabis cigarette completely abolished the symptoms
The circumstance is to show others reasons why it should be legalized across the United States. The problem is that certain states just not going to go with it being legalized, and it’s going to take for someone very knowledgeable to convince them that it’s not bad as they think it is. The drug come from the earth naturally so there can’t be any harm to it. All those other drugs are man made drugs that has tone of different chemicals. So if everyone is informed what is in the drug and what the drug do than everyone wouldn’t be so judgemental about the drug. So therefore my position is to show people that it not the best drug to use or the worst just inform what people taking.
Therefore, with everything taken into account, marijuana should be legalized and the policy should be changed immediately. There is too much good to come from this policy for a change to not be done. Also there are many people that agree with a policy change and the government needs to do the same. Marijuana can clearly help make this country better for the people in many ways. Health is clearly a huge concern for the administration and that is the reason they may delay to authorize it. Yet, as studies appear there are few health dangers and even some positive health factors that marijuana could contribute. Likewise, how much lawful cannabis can help our administration subsidizing and equity framework is another reason the arrangement should be changed at this point. Keeping kids off the streets and drug handlers from pitching it to kids. It is likewise more evidence of how poorly the present approach is running. Lawful cannabis could help hard medications from spreading to the wrong individuals. Additionally, it will keep the measure of drug dealers down and the measure of legitimate shops up. With everything taken into account marijuana would do significantly more positive than it would negative if it somehow managed to be allowed. Therefore, readers should reconsider that the drug isn’t as bad a people make it seem and realize that it helps instead of killing. Also hope readers realized that it saves lives each and everyday.
Work Cited
- Ekins, Gavin, and Joseph Bishop-Henchman. “Marijuana Tax Legalization and Federal Revenue.” Tax Foundation, Tax Foundation, 26 Mar. 2018, taxfoundation.org/marijuana-tax-legalization-federal-revenue/.
- “Drug War Statistics.” Drug Policy Alliance, www.drugpolicy.org/issues/drug-war-statistics.
- “Marijuana Arrests by the Numbers.” American Civil Liberties Union, www.aclu.org/gallery/marijuana-arrests-numbers.
- Medical Uses of Cannabis and THC, www.cannabis-med.org/english/patients-use.htm.
- Insider, Business. “The Positives and Negatives: How Marijuana Affects Your Brain and Body.”TheJournal.ie, www.thejournal.ie/marijauan-health-effects-legalised-medical-negative-positve-1256236-Jan2014/.
- Young, Saundra. “Marijuana Stops Child’s Severe Seizures.” CNN, Cable News Network, 7 Aug. 2013, www.cnn.com/2013/08/07/health/charlotte-child-medical-marijuana/index.html.
- Tracy, Natasha. “Is Marijuana Harmful? Positive and Negative Effects of Marijuana, Weed – Marijuana Addiction – Addictions.” HealthyPlace, www.healthyplace.com/addictions/marijuana-addiction/is-marijuana-harmful-positive-and-negative-effects-of-marijuana-weed/.