Whether marijuana should be legal or not has always been a hot topic in the USA. While some people think it’s a bad influence on young people, others think it’s a harmless recreational drug that offers medical benefits.
In the past few years, more states have come on board with the idea of making marijuana legal, and as of today, you can purchase marijuana in 35 states of the US for medicinal uses. You can also purchase it for recreational purposes in 14 states, provided that you are 21 years old or older. However, buying and selling marijuana is still seen as criminal activity in many states and at the federal level.
It doesn’t matter which side you support; it is important for you to learn about the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana before you take a stand. People who have always considered marijuana a bad drug often wonder why people are rooting for its legalization. In this article, I have mentioned a few reasons that will help you understand why the government needs to legalize marijuana across the country. Let’s take a look:
Safer Than Tobacco and Alcohol
If you compare marijuana with tobacco and alcohol, you will realize that it is a much safer alternative for both of them.
You can open Google right now and search how many people have died in drunk driving incidents, and the numbers will shock you. Similarly, cigarettes are still one of the leading causes of death, and no one seems to worry about it. Alcohol is also extremely dangerous for your liver and kidneys and can poison your body over time.
When you view all these drugs in the same light, marijuana is clearly the lesser evil. It also shows you the hypocrisy of the government because they are clearly not banning weed just because it is a little harmful.
Offers Medical Benefits
Perhaps the strongest argument to legalize marijuana is that it offers plenty of medical benefits and can help in several different treatments.
Marijuana is already legal for medicinal purposes in 35 states, but that number is not good enough. It should be legalized for medicinal uses in all states because it can make the lives of many people fighting different diseases easier.
The extent to which marijuana can be used as a medicine is still not clear because research is still underway. However, several studies have shown that marijuana can help with the following conditions:
- Chronic Pain
- Sleep Disorders
- Anxiety & Depression
- Epilepsy in Children
- Helps in chemotherapy
The government can legalize marijuana and encourage researchers to do more studies and determine how marijuana is helping these medical conditions.
Legal Means Better Products
Just because marijuana is illegal in certain states doesn’t mean people don’t use it there. Even though buying and selling marijuana is a crime, people still indulge in it, and they are not stopping any time soon.
Also, the conditions are even worse for people who need it for medical purposes but cannot find it on the market. The only marijuana they will be able to find is from some dealer who is producing low-quality marijuana and selling it at high prices.
Using that kind of marijuana can be dangerous and can do more harm than good. That is why the government should legalize it so that people can buy it from stores and in FDA-approved packaging.
It Can Help the Economy
Billions of dollars worth of weed are sold every day on the black market, and the government is unable to do anything about it. The smart thing to do here is to make marijuana legal so people can buy it from regulated suppliers and the government can put a tax on it.
It is a great opportunity for the government to increase tax returns because marijuana is highly popular, and a lot of people buy it on a daily basis. It is also possible that when it becomes legal more people will start buying it, which means the government will be able to generate more revenue in tax.
Keeps Harmless People Out of Jail
Buying and selling marijuana is a crime, and if you are caught doing it, you can end up behind bars. When you analyze the type of drug marijuana is and how harmless it is compared to its alternatives, putting people behind for it sounds a bit extreme.
More than 700,000 people are arrested by the government every year for marijuana possession, and many of them end up serving time behind bars. A lot of these people go into jail for a harmless crime like selling marijuana, and they come out as criminals because of the extreme conditions they have to face in jail.
By legalizing marijuana, the government can put an end to that crime, and those people will be able to stay with their families and get out of jail.