Marijuana, or cannabis, is commonly described as a recreational drug. Its been considered an illegal narcotic for the past sixty to seventy years. Our government considers it to be harmful to the nation. They believe it causes health problems and accidents.

In 1996, Propositions 215 and 200 were voted into effect in the states of California and Arizona. The propositions have laws allowing physicians to recommend marijuana as medicine and patients to grow, posses, and use it.

Proposition 215 allows patients to grow and posses marijuana with a doctors recommendation. People suffering or dying can get a written or oral recommendation if the doctor thinks it will help the patient physically. proposition 215 also says no doctor can be punished for supplying the recommendation.

In California, proposition 215 is called The Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Its vote won 56 percent to 44 percent among California citizens. In Arizona, a similar act was passed called Proposition 200.

Many people, like doctors, law officers, political officers, cancer, and AIDS patients argue for the proposition. They

I believe marijuana is less dangerous then alcohol and cigarettes. If it was ever legalized than it could be regulated like any other legal drug. People argue that pot is a gateway drug. They think marijuana leads people to do worse things like heroin or crack. If marijuana was classified as legal, like alcohol and cigarettes than the gateway is taken away. Therefore, by legalizing marijuana, people may even be prevented from taking hard drugs.

The government says that the drug is hazardous, and has no medical use, but there is a lot of scientific evidence contradicting this. There has been many studies done on whether or not cannabis is anymore harmful then other legal drugs. The U.S National Institute of Drug Abuse's bureau of morality statistics reports that per year there has been zero deaths caused by marijuana. In comparison tobacco causes 400, 000 deaths, alcohol causes 100,000, aspirin causes 500, and all other illegal drugs cause 8,000 deaths per year.

A study conducted to determine whether smoking marijuana can be linked to lung cancer, and it was false. People who smoke marijuana are less likely to get cancer than people who smoke cigarettes. Therefore, those who smoke b

Some common words found in the essay are:
Drug War, Drug Abuse's, Compassionate Act, California Arizona, Pete Wilson, , proposition 215, National Institute, recommend marijuana, patients grow posses, serious illnesses, users dealers, patients grow, alcohol cigarettes, marijuana people, people suffering, national institute, grow posses,
Approximate Word count = 811
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)