English Speech

Jacob Quanbeck

English III

12/2/13

Ms. Fordahl

Marijuana

Marijuana, What is it? Well it’s a mix of parts from the cannabis plant. It’s also an illegal drug. But should it really be illegal? Well I believe it should be legalized.

I believe that marijuana should be legalized for many reasons. One reason would be the tax dollars spent on trying to track down dealers. Also tax dollars are spent in keeping the the prisons full of users of the drug. So legalizing it would almost immediately cut down on tax dollars spent, which can be used on the debt the US has. Marijuana is almost as popular as, and is less dangerous than, alcohol and cigarettes which as we all know are legal.

Some might say that it could be a gateway drug to harder drugs like heroin, but I think that this is a risk we can take. I would like to say that legalizing it wouldn’t even increase the users of this drug, since if you don’t do it now then you probably wouldn’t do it if it were legal. The last point I had also would cover the gateway drug part so I believe that making marijuana legal won’t increase the amount users of heavier drugs, like heroin.

I’d also like to say that in 1937 marijuana was made illegal based on shady, to say the least, tactics. Hemp, which is parts that are different from the ones used in marijuana but still parts of  the cannabis plant, could cheaply and effectively replace paper which angered the paper companies that could lose a ton of money. So in retaliation the leaders of said companies spread wild stories about African American men, crazed by the drug, raped and killed people. A few also owned newspapers and published stories like the the one mentioned earlier. Can we really validate continuing to ban something that was wrongfully banned based on fake stories? I don’t believe that we can, and I hope that you do too.