for something that has not even come close to stopping the use of marijuana. 50 million people each year still try marijuana at least once with no adverse effects(Marijuana). This money is wasted, whereas the government could produce a revenue with the sale of marijuana. In fact 18 million people use marijuana once a month despite drug laws, and large amounts of people think it is acceptable(Marshall 89).Even with all of the chemicals in marijuana it is still of the safer drugs. In fact alcohol and cigarettes account for 95% of drug related deaths in the United States while marijuana only accounts for about 1%(Marijuana). A person would have to use 40,000 times the amount of marijuana needed to get high to overdose, whereas the amount of alcohol can be as low as 4 to 1(Nagorney).It is true, marijuana does have harmful consequences. As do cigarettes and alcohol but they are legal and kill more people. As for marijuana causing short term memory loss, this is partially true. Only while the person is intoxicated on marijuana is the persons short term memory effected. After the effects wear off their short term memory will return in full(Marijuana). It is also true that marijuana may effect driving skills while a person is intoxicated but 85% of marijuana users that were involved in auto accidents were also under the influence of alcohol(Marijuana). The statement claiming marijuana as a gate way drug may have some truth in it, but a majority of marijuana users also either smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, other gate way drugs. To further back this point up, if you compare hard drug use in the United States to hard drug use in Holland, where marijuana is legal, Hollands hard drug use has declined much more than the United States(Marijuana). If a person were to compare the issue of legalization of marijuana to prohibition in the 1920s, they would see that in some ways it is very similar. Violence related to alcohol sale dur...
