use.(6) The first recorded use of marijuana as medicine was in China in 2727 BC. Marijuana was legalin the United States until 1937. The use of marijuana as medicine was rediscovered in the 70s asmany people used the drug for recreational purposes. Now people who suffer from a variety ofdiseases are begging for legal use of this drug.(5) 2 Irvin Rosenfeld is a stockbroker who has smoked marijuana, supplied to him by the FederalGovernment, for 27 years. He has a rare disease which causes tumors to press into his muscles. The marijuana relaxes his muscles and keeps them from being torn. It also allows him to movewith less pain. Rosenfeld says, When you have a devastating disease, all you care about isgetting the right medicine... and not having to worry about being made a criminal.(6) Many people feel that legalizing marijuana would increase the amount of use, yet throughoutthe past decades the demand of the drug has not diminished and it is highly unlikely that thedemand will lessen in the future. Marijuana is basically going through the stages in which alcoholhad during prohibition. Legal or not, people will still continue to smoke this drug. Legalization of marijuana is an option that deserves a chance. It would benefit the UnitedStates financially because the countrys revenue would increase on marijuana taxes. Also, therewould not be as much money wasted on apprehending and prosecuting marijuana users. It wouldalso give law enforcers a better opportunity to focus on the real war on drugs. Instead ofincarcerating harmless marijuana smokers, they would concentrate on getting heroin, crack, andcrystal meth off the streets. At the same time it would lead to at least a 5% decrease in thehomicide rate in the United States.(2) In view of the new millennium approaching, there is a possibility that marijuana will becomelegal. It may never be legal to the general public, but the prob...
