Legalizing Marijuana
"I didn't inhale," was President Bill Clinton's reply when the news about his experimenting with marijuana was released into the media. Over seventy million Americans, including President Clinton, admit to using marijuana. Marijuana has been referred to as the overwhelming drug of choice among teenagers (Levine 52). The legalization of marijuana use has been an extremely heated and controversial issue in the past few years but the war on drugs has been going on for over 80 years with no logical resolution except to legalize it. The fight to legalize marijuana has been long and strenuous because of all the differences in opinions on the matter. Some think marijuana should never be made legal, others believe it should be made legal for medical reasons only, and some say it is our constitutional right and should not even be questioned. The power of marijuana is something of another world. It has a power that can not be explained but is so potent it can make friends out of enemies. Marijuana is a common ground for most, a way to get a grasp on a stressful situation, and to chill out from the hustles and bustles of everyday life. Hippies are the ultimate poster children for this powerful plant, people who know how to handl
Another plus side to the legalization of marijuana in the United States would be the availability of the many uses of hemp. "Hemp is natures longest, strongest, most durable fiber. As a fabric it is softer, more insulating, more absorbent, more breathable, and longer lasting than cotton. One acre of hemp produces as much paper as 4.1 acres of trees. Anything that can be made out of wood or plastic can be made out of hemp, but hemp is biodegradable. If only 6% of the U.S. was farmed with hemp, there would be enough energy produced to provide for all of America's energy needs and end the dependence on fossil fuels." (http://www.hemp.com/101/QuickFacts.asp) There is so much more information about hemp that that alone is a good enough reason for legalizing marijuana. Marijuana paraphernalia is also a hot item, unusually so on college campuses. Does it make sense that products that are knowingly sold for the consumption of something illegal to be legal. To make it even more ironic, I know people who have taken glass blowing classes through the university, and now sell pieces for $10 to $300+. Another reason for keeping marijuana illegal is that it is said to be linked to a high rate of crime. Research has never been able to identify a link between marijuana and crime, flatly. In fact it is believed that the legalization of marijuana would help lower the crime rate. Why should law abiding citizens be arrested and treated like criminals? Some claim that the imprisonment of marijuana users clogs our court system and overcrowds our prisons. Truly violent criminals are often paroled early due to sheer lack of prison space, there is a difference between rapists, thieves, and murderers and people who smoke marijuana and are humble harmless citizens. In 1997 there were 695,200 marijuana arrests made, which averages out to one every 45 seconds (www.norml.org/legal/index.html). Therefore, legalization would bring the prison population down below its rated capacity. It would reduce the court's cases by the thousands. Because this weed is
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Approximate Word count = 1379
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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