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Legalization of Marijuana
This essay seeks to provide arguments about whether marijuana should be legalized or not. Since childhood, parents repetitively advise their children that marijuana is very harmful, and using it can ruin their lives. The primary aspect which scares children about marijuana is that they are shown images and advertisements which are meant to portray the adverse effects of marijuana. Therefore, they end up believing that marijuana has adverse effects on the body. Such information is very unrealistic because marijuana is very safe to human health as compared to alcohol and tobacco, which pose a health risk of liver cancer and lung cancer, respectively (McGinty et al, 2017). Marijuana has been proven to be a medicine, and thus legalizing it, will boost the economy because its demand is high enough. Furthermore, it will create employment opportunities for the youths who are facing the wrath of unemployment because the increased demand will prompt large scale farming of the cannabis plant to ensure a sufficient supply of marijuana in the market. Having declared marijuana as medicinal, many people will engage in doing selling it due to its marketability, and thus the government can earn more taxes and revenues from the businesses.
However, the positives of the legalization of marijuana overwhelm the corresponding negatives. Firstly, legalizing marijuana will allow for free market selling. Thus, based on its medical properties, people will use it to cure diseases like cholera, epilepsy, and tetanus diseases, which are considered to require complex treatment. Various researchers have discovered that patients suffering from the mentioned diseases recover after using marijuana. Additionally, cannabis is beneficial in treating other diseases like migraine, loss of appetite, dysentery, palsy, the inability to sleep, involuntary twitching, and excessive coughing. When marijuana is used to patients exhibiting the above ailments, it relieves them from the pain and symptoms of the disease. Distinctively, marijuana has further been regarded as suitable to alleviate the suffering of HIV/AIDS patients (Clark et al, 2011). However, all these medical properties of marijuana are confirmed and cannot be underrated in any way. The primary reason why most people are against the authorization of marijuana is that it is regarded as very addictive due to its “hardness.” Therefore, it is classified as a possible cause of other harmful drugs like heroin and cocaine.
Numerous studies have confirmed that marijuana is very addictive, and therefore when it is legalized, people will use it unlimitedly, and thus addiction may lead to mental problems. However, they argue that legalizing marijuana must have prescriptions like other medicine, of which this is not achievable. Hence, they conclude that it must be strictly prohibited (Keyhani et al, 2018). Additionally, marijuana causes psychological addiction, which damages the short-term memory, may further alter the heart rate, and impair users’ judgment since their brain functionality is disturbed. Marijuana also detracts consciousness from one’s mind consciousness, and therefore, victims are more likely to engage in dangerous criminal activities like killing people since their state of mind is wanting.
Based on the analysis provided by various researchers, the outcomes of their researches portray that marijuana has more benefits than weaknesses. Coherent and sensible arguments have supported this, and therefore marijuana should be authorized by the government. The first argument is that marijuana has been confirmed as having curative properties and relieves pain and anguish of people who suffer from numerous illnesses (Mark Anderson et al, 2013). This assertion is undeniable because many scholars have done explorations in different eras, whereby, they found that marijuana is a very distinctive medicine. After all, it is capable of healing a wide range of deadly diseases which require long processes of treatment in hospitals. However, obtaining chemical from marijuana is a short distillation process, and the primary compound is cannabinoids which provides relief of chronic pain in the body. The chemical composition of marijuana makes it essential in improving lung capacity, unlike smoking tobacco, which causes adverse effects on the human lungs. Cannabinoid also helps in fighting various types of cancer, such as liver and lung cancer, which are caused by tobacco and alcohol, which are legalized. Other than the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, it is also recommendable for recreational purposes because its use is better for human health than legalizing drugs like alcohol and tobacco, which are most preferred for having fun.
Furthermore, government authorization of marijuana has economic benefits since marijuana is highly demanded in society because it is ranked as the most abused drug globally. Therefore, after legalization, many businesses will be established to serve the demand. Trading marijuana will embrace paying taxes, which are a source of revenue for the government. However, the key benefits of marijuana legalization to the economy are discussed below (Kesler, 2019). First of all, legalization will earn the government extensive revenue because all taxes rated to distribution and selling of marijuana will be directed to the government. These revenues will be in terms of business tax, sales tax, and payroll tax deductions; therefore, based on the high demand for marijuana, the government will earn more revenues because the businesses will be very marketable.
Secondly, legalizing marijuana will attract a large number of investors to engage in manufacturing drugs like Cannabidiol, among other related medicine made from cannabis sativa. However, recreational cannabis is also highly demanded, and thus other investors will also engage in the manufacture vaporizers. Currently, marijuana is very prohibited, and therefore investors fear investing in manufacturing cannabis products. Therefore, legalization will attract people to make large stocks of cannabis products to serve the high marijuana market, hence, stimulating the growth of the economy. Thirdly, the enforcement of cannabis laws is allocated huge budgets by the federal government. Legalizing the use of marijuana will save all this money and, in turn, generate much money in terms of taxes. Much money is used in facilitating undercover security activities to detect those who carry out illegal marijuana businesses. Moreover, cannabis law convicts are charged in courts whereby the government spends a lot of money to pursue court proceedings (Robison, 2019). Legalizing marijuana businesses will save this money, and therefore it can be allocated in funding government projects.
The next benefit is that legalization will increase the availability of marijuana countrywide. Therefore the cost of cannabis products like cannabidiol oil and other cannabis-related medicine will decrease such that patients can afford it. However, when cannabis medicine is highly affordable, more patients will recover from their suffering at a cheaper cost. An additional economic benefit of legalizing marijuana is that it will create more jobs and opportunities; therefore, curbing unemployment problems. The tasks will emerge from the establishment of new industries such as vaporizer industries; for manufacturing recreational cannabis products, and drug or medicine industries to produce cannabis-related medicinal products.
Nevertheless, many people will engage in planting the cannabis plant while others will be employed to harvest and distribute it to the industries; others will be hired to work in the industries to carry out the manufacturing, purifying, and packaging processes. Furthermore, other people will engage in retailing cannabis products to ensure that they are readily available in local shops where consumers can access it easily (Evans, 2013). The establishment and operation of these industries will require much capital; therefore, money lending institutions like banks will loan money to investors. Hence, they will earn massive amounts of interest that are beneficial in growing the economy.
In conclusion, countries should consider legalizing marijuana. After all, it is essential in therapeutic industries because it has been proven to contain medicinal components that are fundamental in relieving pain and curing various diseases. Additionally, the parliament ought to approve appropriate regulations that support the medical cannabis industry to facilitate its growth to provide enough cannabis medicine. However, the freedom to use marijuana for therapeutic purposes will prompt more scientific research to explore the benefits of marijuana on human health. Despite focusing on the medical benefits of marijuana, it is also recommendable that governments accentuate the economic benefits of cannabis because it facilitates economic growth in various ways.
However, the therapeutic use of marijuana is most prominent than economic benefits because it is proven to cure severe health conditions like chronic pains, as well as treating and managing diseases like heart failure, diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, mental disorders, arthritis, and cancer, amongst other conditions (Pacula & Smart, 2017). However, medical patients who are in pain require marijuana and other cannabis-related medicine even when the governments do not consider legalizing marijuana. Patients’ increased demand for marijuana prompts the argument that marijuana must be legalized because it will further contribute to economic growth.
Works Cited
Clark, Peter A., Kevin Capuzzi, and Cameron Fick. “Medical marijuana: medical necessity versus political agenda.” Medical science monitor: international medical journal of experimental and clinical research 17.12 (2011): RA249.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3628147/
Evans, David G. “The economic impacts of marijuana legalization.” The Journal of Global Drug Policy and Practice 7.4 (2013): 2-40.https://www.dfaf.org/wp- content/uploads/2018/11/Vol-7-Issue-4.pdf
Kesler, Kody. “Marijuana Issues for Voters: Studying Issues US States Have Had with Legalizing Marijuana.” WRIT: GSW Journal of First-Year Writing 2.2 (2019): 8.https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/writ/vol2/iss2/8/
Keyhani, Salomeh, et al. “Risks and benefits of marijuana use: a national survey of US adults.” Annals of internal medicine 169.5 (2018): 282-290.https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M18-0810
Mark Anderson, D., Benjamin Hansen, and Daniel I. Rees. “Medical marijuana laws, traffic fatalities, and alcohol consumption.” The Journal of Law and Economics 56.2 (2013): 333-369.https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/668812
McGinty, Emma E., et al. “Public perceptions of arguments supporting and opposing recreational marijuana legalization.” Preventive medicine 99 (2017): 80-86.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0091743517300488
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo, and Rosanna Smart. “Medical marijuana and marijuana legalization.” Annual review of clinical psychology 13 (2017): 397-419.https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032816-045128
Robison, Alexander Lee. “The Economic Effects of National Marijuana Legalization.” (2019). https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1138/