Marijuana Legalization Analysis

Over the decades, an intriguing and contemptuous debate over whether to legalize marijuana has expanded to beyond the realm of recreational users. Having once seemed a topic solely for hippie driven youth, this topic has broadened to affect people of all ages and social economic groups in our American society. From the playgrounds of middle school students to the offices of business executives, marijuana has become the most widely used illegal drug in the United States. Via Hayoung Terra Yim describes the reasons she feels the legalization of marijuana is important in her article, "Why Young People Should Care About Marijuana Legalization". As with any viewpoint, there is always an opposing side. Natalie Rivera discusses some of the fundamental reasons as to why the legalization of

History has taught us, that as we evolve as a civilization, our way of thinking changes and in response to that we must adapt. We must change our outlooks, our views, our prejudices, our preconceptions and our ignorances. We have become a more critical thinking society and have acquired many advancements that our fore fathers never dreamed possible. Part of being a United States citizen, is taking an active role and participating in civic responsibilities. One of these responsibilities, I believe is having either an obligation to influence our government to change the laws that no longer represent the views or values that we, as a people, believe in or we have an obligation to defend, protect and stand by those freedoms and laws that we feel empower who we are as citizens. As we evolve, so does our way of thinking and sometimes adaptations need to made in order to accommodate for the changes in our way of thinking. However, there are other times when there is no room to deviate from the core freedoms and rights granted to us by our government. It is important to preserve or fight to change the standards of all our laws, which is essential for our democratic