Seth Finley Oct, 15, 2017

There is more public support for marijuana law reform than ever before with new

polls showing more than half the country is in favor of legalizing marijuana. The drug

policy alliance (DPA) believes marijuana should be removed from the criminal justice

system and regulated like alcohol and tobacco. In the U.S there is recreational and

medical laws in effect. Why should we legalize? One reason could be to create jobs,

legalizing and regulating marijuana will bring on of the nation's largest cash crops under

the rule of the law. This will create jobs and economic opportunities in the economy

instead of the black market. Legalizing marijuana would have police arresting less

people for marijuana. This would also reduce crime because people selling in the black

market won't be able to keep up with the dispensaries prices. Legalizing marijuana

would also save money, scarce law enforcement resources will better used to ensure

public safety while reducing corrections and court cost. State and Governments would

acquire significant new sources of tax revenue from regulating marijuana sales. Illegal

marijuana has some unjust laws as for example marijuana is classified as a schedule 1

narcotic under federal law, putting the plant in a category reserved for substance which

have no accepted medical use in the United States, a lack of safety for use under

medical supervision and high potential for abuse. which is saying the federal

government thinks marijuana is as dangerous as heroin, MDMA, and LSD, and is

more dangerous than morphine, oxycodone, cocaine, and Meth. Which is crazy, the

marijuana plant does not have any addictive additives unlike tobacco which contains the

addictive chemical nicotine and causes numerous cancers, throughout human history

there has been no recorded incident in which someone has overdosed on marijuana

and with the increase in more potent forms of marijuana being produced there still has
Seth Finley Oct, 15, 2017

not been any cannabis-related hospitalizations. But many people have overdosed from

the same prescribed medicine such as Xanax, Morphine, Oxycodone, Methadone,

Valium, and Fentanyl. A new study shows that hospitalization rates for opioid

dependence and abuse dropped on an average 23% in states after marijuana became

legal for medical purposes, hospitalization rates for opioid overdose dropped 13% on

average. This also might just be the right step towards fighting the opioid epidemic,

which has quadrupled since 1999 in sales of prescription painkillers such as oxycontin

and vicodin - kills 91 americans a day. 83% of americans surveyed recently said that

doctors should be able to prescribe marijuana to patients, only 14% said they oppose

legalizing medical marijuana. However, 49% of people said they support legalizing

recreational marijuana, compared to 47% who said they disapprove. Despite the justice

department's prohibition on marijuana, however; more than half the states in the country

have passed laws in recent years allowing adults to consume cannabis for medical or

recreational purposes, largely without opposition from the obama administration. Most

of americans think the Trump administration should take a more relaxed approach on

medical cannabis than his predecessor. So how do you think we should approach

medical marijuana?, should we enforce harsher laws or be more relaxed?