The Benefits of Legalizing Marijuana

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Legalization of Marijuana

Despite late controversy regarding weed or as most professionals call it now medical marijuana, I have a strong opinion regarding given substance. I think marijuana should be legal but I'm going to discuss this matter more in my essay. Some topics I would like to discuss would be: should it be legal, is it beneficial for medical purposes, economy, job growth and reducing crime rates.

Background

Industrial Hemp Plant(“Hemp, Industrial Hemp field”)

For most of human history, marijuana has been completely legal. It’s not a recently discovered plant, nor is it a long-standing law. Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it’s been in use. Its known uses go back further than 7,000 B.C. (“Hemp, 2013”)

The marijuana and hemp plant, of course, has an incredible number of uses. Over the centuries the plant was used for food, incense, cloth, rope, and much more. The plant is well known from the early 1600′s, but did not reach public awareness as a recreational drug until the early 1900′s. America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law “ordering” all farmers to grow Indian hemp seed. There were several other “must grow” laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender , so you could even pay your taxes with hemp. Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes, including essential war requirements like rope, that the government went out of its way to encourage growth. In Russia till late eighteen hundreds clothes called “Rubaha” were made out of marijuana plants. The 1850 US Census of Agriculture show...

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... Retrieved from https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid(=GoUODtBgCE7NpM&tbnid=aw-VDiNqt8troM:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http://www.cafepress.com/+legalize-marijuana+posters&ei=oX2mUoHVKrKnsQSqroCYCA&bvm=bv.57799294,d.cWc&psig=AFQjCNExu_u95iuIL0439GlfyyR4ZmLOSg&ust=1386729239249192

NORML, W. (2013, 03 11). Medical use. Retrieved from http://norml.org/marijuana/medical

Paul, A. (2007, 2 9). Pot prisoners cost americans $1 billion a year. Retrieved from http://www.alternet.org/story/47815/pot_prisoners_cost_americans_$1_billion_a_year

(2013). Marijuana Ordinance [Print Photo]. Retrieved from http://images.sodahead.com/polls/003229551/3432288842_marijuana_ordinance_answer_2_xlarge.jpeg

2013). Grow Economy [Web Drawing]. Retrieved from http://legalizationofmarijuana.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Grow-the-Economy-300x229.jpeg

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