Persuasive Essay On Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized

Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized

While marijuana is illegal today, it was not always a bad thing in the US. American production of hemp, where marijuana comes from, was actually encouraged by the US government for farmers to grow. In 1619 the Virginia Assembly actually passed a law requiring all farmers to grow hemp. Recreational use was not thought of until the 1920s. Recreational use of marijuana was introduced by Mexican immigrants. Marijuana use became associated with the immigrants, and fear of Spanish speaking people. During the Great depression, the towering amount of unemployment increased the fear of the immigrants, and led to higher concerns of marijuana. Then by 1931 29 states had made the use of marijuana illegal. Despite how many helpful qualities it has.
Marijuana should be legal because keeping marijuana illegal is expensive. The “War on Drugs” costs our government billions of dollars every year to send people to jail. When a court system sends someone to jail for smoking a small joint, who pays for that person to go to jail? Everyone in the US who pays taxes. A US taxpayer would pay for food, housing health care, attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses to send someone to

jail. American citizens have better, more important issues to care about, and pay taxes on than a peaceful, happy person who likes to smoke a joint once in awhile.
Marijuana can also have valuable medicinal use.

There is strong evidence marijuana can reduce nausea and pain in cancer chemotherapy, anorexia, and AIDs/HIV patients. In several studies marijuana has been found to reduce anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, and many more psychiatric disorders. Some medicine people take for these problems can create worse symptoms. On some anti-depression or anxiety medications it says a possible side effect is increased suicidal, and homicidal thoughts. One should expect when they are taking medications to help their symptoms, they should not be prescribed something that has a possibility of making it worse. Marijuana may not be able to help everything, but it should be there as an option when someone feels they have tried

everything.
Hemp also has beneficial qualities to many areas of life. Hemp is discriminated against, because of its close relation so marijuana. Hemp does not contain the amounts of THC, the primary hallucinatory drug in weed, that marijuana has. A hemp crop has many helpful uses. It can be used to make rope, clothing and paper. A hemp plastic can be created which would be 100% recyclable and biodegradable. Hemp foods also contain beneficial nutrients, such as essential fatty acids. Hemp oils can also create biofuels, lubricants, and even soap.
Marijuana is a misunderstood drug. People assume it is dangerous because it is a drug, but could be helpful and should be legal for many reasons. It has many beneficial uses, from helping a person relieve pain, to helping to reduce pollution in our whole environment.. When people get past the main recreational use of marijuana, they will see how important and beneficial it could be to everyone in our society. Despite stories people tell, marijuana

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/cron.html
"Marijuana Timeline." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 30 Aug. 2016.
http://www.cannabis-med.org/english/patients-use.htm
"Medical Uses of Cannabis and THC." Medical Uses of Cannabis and THC. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Aug. 2016.
http://www.mjlegal.org/essayspeech.html
"Why Marijuana Should Be Legal." Why Marijuana Should Be Legal: Logical Arguments for Students Writing Essays and Papers about Marijuana Legalization. MLO, n.d. Web. 30 Aug. 2016.
http://www.mjlegal.org/hemp.html
"Marijuana Legalization Organization: Hemp." Marijuana Legalization Organization: Hemp. MLO, n.d. Web. 30 Aug. 2016.