The Need for the Freedom of Weed

Marijuana, the most widely used illegal drug in the U.S. has been since 1914 when it was made illegal. Pharmaceutical companies saw it as a competitor and proposed a bill be passed to illegalize it. Many argue it is dangerous, and leads to irrational decisions, but in reality, marijuana causes less deaths each year than alcohol or tobacco! Marijuana has had no recorded deaths due to overdose in its history because of the simple fact that in order to overdose, a human would have to smoke 1,500 pounds of it, in about fifteen minutes. Alcohol poisoning can occur much more quickly and do much more damage, yet, although marijuana is clearly less dangerous, it has been illegalized. Not only is it less dangerous, but marijuana is helpful to those who have serious illnesses such as Alzheimer’s or AIDS. While it has extreme medical value and has been proven to reduce the risk of certain cancers, and helps with Epilepsy and Anorexia, doctors and officials refuse to recognize it as a legitimate medicine except for in very severe cases. Instead, doctors continue to turn to drugs that are less effective and unable to help with the sickness caused by chemotherapy. Not only would legalizing marijuana help in the medical field to many suffering patients, but it would also reduce the number of crimes related to drugs and, some argue; it would make it more difficult for minors to obtain. While it is illegal to all ages, minors can obtain it as easily as anyone else can, simply because dealers do not care about who they are selling to. By legalizing marijuana, minors would be unable to buy it until they are 18 or 21. This would lead to less use simply because the minors would lose dealers due to the commercial sales of marijuana. Like alcohol, marijuana would be harder to obtain once it was legalized for certain ages. Crime would go down as well because supply of marijuana would go up, making the plant lose some of its rarity and value. And while supply would grow due to farms that are able to grow the plants, demand would also grow due to the legalization and stimulate the economy. Marijuana is less harmful to the lungs than cigarettes and is non-addictive, making it less harmful than most tobacco products on the market. In conclusion, the legalization of marijuana would lead to only good things for our country and the people in it.