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Marijuana should be legalized

Marijuana should be legalized I stand pretty hard on this one. And many of my peers as well. The ones that don’t are mostly the “serious middle age citizens”, as they enjoy calling themselves. The grandmas and grandpas don’t even know about this issue, so they are not as loud on it. Lucky us! The fact is, majority of the marijuana consumers are we, the young people. Why do we do it? Why not? We are young and we want to have fun. Getting high gets our boredom away. It is easy for the “serious middle aged citizens” to say that this is a poor reason but, after all, they are “serious”. They did the same at our age. But now, of course, they are “sinless”. What would they say about the people that need this drug desperately for medical use? Or it is fine to be an anti-marijuana activist as long as Tylenol and Advil do it for you? How selfish! There are people out there crying out for medical help. This is their last hope. Should we ignore them? Let them suffer and die? Finally, marijuana is not as dangerous as tobacco and alcohol, but we haven’t abolished them. Hundreds of thousands of deaths each year are the casualties of tobacco and alcohol consumption. But Jack Daniels and Camel ads are still on the back-cover of our favorite magazines. Not to mention the billions of dollars only US government spends fighting marijuana. Wake up Uncle Sam, there are some real dangers you need to eliminate, and marijuana is not one of them. The fun time it provides, its medical use, and the discriminations it is a subject of, support the idea of its legalization. Well, what can I say, Uncle Sam is just too busy to listen to us “potheads”. But, wait Uncle Sam, even your creators “toke it up” once in a while. Apparently, for President Clinton Lewinsky wasn’t a scandal big enough, so he stepped forward and said, “I smoked (marijuana), but I didn’t inhale”. It’s like one saying, “Yeah, I drank some beer, but I didn’t swallow”. Let’s face reality. Marijuana is part of people’s lives and we cannot ignore that. People need pleasures, and marijuana seems to be our- young people’s, favorite one. So why don’t you let us enjoy it? High is our association of fun. And it is so because of a reason. The feeling is beyond our imagination- minutes lasting hours, feeling happy and secure, heart bumping in the music beet... If you don’t believe us, there is only one way you can find the truth. Be brave and don’t let fear and prejudice get on your way. The ones against legalization either haven’t tried marijuana and should try it before they take a stand, or have consumed marijuana and don’t have the right to deny us that privilege. But, fun is not what it is all about. People that need marijuana for more fundamental reasons too. Medical use of marijuana is the most radical one. Who could deny one’s need for medicine? Such inhuman act astonishes me. It is medically proven that marijuana can relieve angle glaucoma, asthma, and the nausea associated with chemotherapy and AIDS. It has also been described as a tumor retardant, an antibiotic, sleep and appetite inducer, and a muscle relaxant. So, before we brag how humanitarian we are and preach what we have done about people suffering from these diseases, we better stop and think about what we haven’t done, and the things we have denied these people. Wearing a red ribbon on the 1st of December won’t help a HIV positive person. Next year he probably won’t be among us living. And as long as his nausea is so dreadful that he can’t eat, no red ribbon or no money can help him. While we shout to our wives and mothers for not having Tylenol for our headache, he is dying and he has no one to shout to. Lying in a hospital room, having stomach cramps and vomiting stomach acid, hallucinating due to pain, he is too insignificant for our government to listen to. And we thought citizens’ needs are all a society is about! What an illusion! Is it Uncle Sam? If yes, we don’t need you, if no, you better check on your behavior. We are tired of this foolish game. While waiting for your answer Uncle Sam, with all due respect, let me elaborate how unconvincing “middle age citizens’” facts and opinions sound. They claim that marijuana threatens our health. Does it? There hasn’t been a single death caused by marijuana. The ratio of lethal to effective dose is estimated as 40,000 to 1. The “marijuana” deaths presented in statistical reports are casualties of traffic and other accidents. But the number of people using marijuana is an enormous one. Most likely, we’ll have the same number of such deaths among a same group of people that don’t use marijuana. Another of their arguments is that cannabis smoke carries more tars and other particulate matter than cigarettes. But the amount smoked is much less, and once marihuana is a recognized medicine, solutions may be found. Water pipes are a partial answer. Furthermore, they point out the high criminal rate among the marijuana consumers. Well, considering the prejudice we all have towards them, and the role of society outcasts they have, it does not surprise me. First, the most common crime they conduct is marijuana possession. Second, the common discrimination towards them prevents them from getting a decent job. Once it is legalized, marijuana possession won’t be a crime anymore, and when the prejudice diminishes they will be able to earn money in a decent way. Finally marijuana prices will go down, so they won’t need crime to earn extra money. Oh, I got it now Uncle Sam, you are just worried for our health. That’s why you don’t legalize marijuana. And you probably think that you do an outstanding job. Then, I wonder what do all these young and, until recently, healthy people die from. The government is here to protect them, how could they die? Do they just want to die that bad? Fact is, a great percentage of these people die from alcohol and tobacco consumption. Only in the US tobacco and alcohol combine for 550 000 deaths annually, while marijuana is “blamed” for 10 000 deaths. But alcohol and tobacco are not abolished yet. Girls still adore guys drinking Jack Daniels and Joe Camel still smiles to us on the billboards while HIV patients get arrested for marijuana possession. How ironic! After reviewing these statistical data though, I just might quit cigarettes and start smoking “pot” instead. Oh, dear Sam, it’s not that I don’t respect you, I just respect my life much more. So, before I start disregarding you, you better persuade me with some beneficial decisions. Legalizing marijuana is one of the priority ones. The way you act won’t make you trusted much longer. Spending 1.3 billion a year “fighting” marijuana won’t either. Who are you fighting? Your citizens’ interest? Why don’t you use that money to develop a program for legal marijuana use? Its outcome will be productive, both for us- the citizens, as well as your reputation among us. I hope you realize that at present, the greatest danger in marijuana use is its illegality. Advice is all I can give you though. Now, it’s up to you my friend. Bibliography:

Word Count: 1246