...Marijuana Legalization When the word marijuana comes up in a conversation, people automatically think of it as a terrible thing to do. Then, there are people who know of far worse things, such as alcohol. Seventy-five thousand deaths in the United States are linked to alcohol every year. Something that kills thousands of people a year is legal and something like marijuana that can be used in the curing treatment of cancer is illegal. The most common reasoning for keeping marijuana illegal is because it is known as a gateway drug. A gateway drug means that people who smoke marijuana are more likely to get into the use of more harder drugs like heroin or cocaine, which is definitely not the case. ¨Studies show that 85% of cocaine users...
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...Cigarettes should be made illegal Name Institution Affiliation Cigarette smoking is estimated to cause more deaths than all other controlled substances combined each year. Cigarette related illnesses are believed to cause more than 400,000 deaths in the United States each year (Jha, 2014). People choose to smoke a cigarette without considering the adverse effects it will have on them. Cigarettes should be made illegal because they are addictive, very harmful to the smokers, the people who inhale second-hand smoke and the environment. Cigarettes should be made illegal because they cause different kinds of cancer. Cigarette smoking is known to be one of the main contributors of the deaths caused by cancer. It causes lung, throat, oesophagus, nose, and stomach cancer among others with cigarettes causing ninety percent of all lung cancer issues. The cancer harm caused by smoking should be one of the reasons why cigarettes should banned (Jha, 2014). Smoking affects not only the smoker alone but also the people who inhale second-hand smoke and the surrounding. Second-hand smoking is said to cause more harm than smoking the cigarette itself. The smoke also pollutes the environment to a big extend. It would not be unfair to allow people who do not smoke to face adverse effects of smoking because of second-hand inhalation of smoke. Cigarettes are bad for the mouth and teeth. They cause tooth decay that makes the teeth wear away. The smoke also stains the teeth leaving them yellow...
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...Should Cigarettes Be Illegal? There has been a lot of question over the years whether or not cigarettes should be outlawed. The answer might not be as obvious as presumed, because there are many pros and cons to banning cigarettes, and to discover the most viable solution, can be very difficult. On the bright side of banning cigarettes, it can reduce the amount of many smoking caused diseases, it would encourage smokers to quit smoking or smoke less, and it would hopefully decrease the amount of deaths caused by smoking. Although, there are also many disadvantages of outlawing cigarettes to consider such as the possibility of, an increase in crime, an increase in illegal distribution of drugs, and an increase in street violence (Newman)....
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...cultural revolution in the decade and the majority of the United States seems to finally agree that it should finally be legalized. With that said there are still those on the fence about the possible legalization of a drug that was once seen as a drug that would turn you into a lazy, stupid criminal. So should smoking pot be legal in every state the same way that smoking cigarettes and drinking beer is legal? The answer is obviously yes. The use of marijuanna for recreational purposes should be legal because it is a well known fact that cannot overdose and therefore cannot die directly from smoking weed which means its safer than most other drugs. The people who smoke weed or do any drugs are going to do them despite their legality so why not make them pay taxes and help put money in our economy instead of a drug dealers pocket. It should also...
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...topic, should it be legalized or not. If it’s legalized, what would change and what would the restrictions be? Would the country save more money? When you look at the positive sides of marijuana, there is more benefits than people realize. Nobody has ever overdosed from smoking weed, and in order to do so you would have to smoke 1,500 pounds in 15 minutes. (greenrushdaily, pg 1) There are more reasons marijuana should be legalized than people think. Such as impact on tax revenue. Colorado collected more than $135 million in taxes and fee on medical and recreational marijuana, sales in the state totaled over $996 million in 2015.(Investopedia, pg 1) Income and jobs is another great example. Jobs such as working at dispensaries or nurseries would create a lot more occupations in the states. A RCG economics and marijuana policy groups says that legalizing recreational marijuana would generate over $1.7 billion in labor income. (Investopedia, pg 1)...
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...Marijuana: Not Just Another Illegal Substance Com/220 Louisa Verhaart 4/14/10 I. Even though it is illegal, marijuana is not the drug people think it is. A. What is marijuana and how do people use it? 1. Marijuana is a drug that’s active ingredient is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and is cut and dried from the plant known as cannabis. 2. The most common way to use marijuana is to smoke it by rolling it into a cigarette paper (a joint) or the outside of a cigar (a blunt). B. Marijuana has been illegal for decades now, but why is it illegal? 1. A big part of why marijuana is illegal is because it is considered an addicting drug and when the law was passed most people didn’t have the right information about this drug. 2. Marijuana was made federally illegal in the United States in 1937 by the Marihuana Tax Act. II. There are a lot of myths about using marijuana that are not true. A. Parents tell their kids that marijuana kills brain cells. 1. No medical test that has been used to show brain damage in people has found that marijuana kills brain cells. 2. Supporting example 2 in a complete sentence. B. Using marijuana while pregnant can cause developmental problems and birth defects. 1. Test were ran on newborns to older kids, no results came back that there was any developmental problems. 2. Older kids of prenatal users and nonusers were tested and only small differences were found with some results better than others. III. Marijuana can help with some medical...
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...Marijuana: An Illegal Smokescreen Do you know what it feels like to get high? To experience the euphoria of having all of your senses heightened and your appetite exponentially increasing? These are all side effects of smoking marijuana, which is currently illegal to do in the United States. Despite the growing number of people and states advocating for its’ legalization, there are a number of valid reasons for it remaining illegal. The first reason is because of the effects that it has on people who use it on a daily basis. The second reason is because of the long-term health effects that it can cause. The third reason is because of the crackdown on “medicinal marijuana” by those who do not believe in its’ medicinal properties. There are a number of negative health and social effects that marijuana can have on a young adult in today’s age. According to David Frum’s “Weed Wacked,” “Habitual marijuana users experience more difficulty with learning and schooling. They do worse at work, miss more workdays, and suffer more accidents. They have fewer friends and occupy lower rungs on the socioeconomic ladder.” (FRUM D. Weed Whacked. Newsweek [serial online]. December 24, 2012;160(25):22.) This suggests that marijuana users are more likely to end up poorer and with dead-end jobs. In the article “Sex, Drugs and Cognition: Effects of Marijuana,” studies show that marijuana “has been used by 28% of persons between the ages of 18 and 25 in the United States.” (Anderson B, Rizzo...
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...The Viewpoint of the Society on Medicinal Marijuana Everything in the society is changing, especially the laws. Legal and illegal drugs are everywhere in society. People, especially teens, know someone who has drugs and could easily get access to them. Drugs like marijuana are one of those easily accessible drugs. Marijuana is still one of the common drugs and is still considered illegal under the federal laws in the United States. Some states such as California have passed laws allowing marijuana legal to smoke and sell. The medical marijuana is to use for medicinal purposes and can only be prescribed by a doctor. Researchers and scientists support the use of marijuana as a medical drug. Some people like patients may view this positively, because the medical marijuana actually worked on them as they get a lot better. Despite some viewpoints in favor of the use of marijuana, it is still an unethical use of the drug, because there are still negative effects of using marijuana. Even though patients who are suffering from illness or disease and are using medical marijuana, patients viewed that it helps them feel better. With the increase of medical marijuana, the worldwide report estimates between 200 and 300 million people are now smoking marijuana (Earleywine 29). With 40% of the public using marijuana as medicine, it has changed the needs and values of our society. The use of medical marijuana can treat patients with many different ailments such as pain, nausea, vomiting,...
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...Introduction Marijuana is a psychoactive drug made from the dried leaves and flowering parts of the hem plant (Dudley, 1999). Marijuana contains an active ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, known as THC. It is one of the most strictly classified illegal drugs in the United States. Marijuana is a schedule I substance. Schedule I means that marijuana has a high potential for abuse. It is illegal to buy, sell, grow, or possess marijuana in the United States. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States. Marijuana is derived from the plant Cannabis. War on Drugs Marijuana prohibition comprises a large part of the federal government’s War on Drug’s. Law enforcement officials made 600,000 marijuana-related arrests in 1995 (Gerdes, 2002). The criminal prohibition of marijuana, this represents an extraordinary degree of government intrusion into the private, personal lives of those adults who choose to use it. People convicted of marijuana offenses face penalties ranging from probation to life imprisonment, plus fines and forfeiture of property. The government spends millions of dollars annually on preventative programs such as Dare Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), in which local police officers visit schools to teach young people to refrain from trying marijuana and other drugs. Marijuana Medical Uses Despite federal laws prohibiting marijuana in 1996, California and Arizona passed state initiatives legalizing marijuana for medical use by patients...
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...this country. It has been used through the years to treat illnesses and save lives. The use of marijuana currently contributes billions of dollars per year to the United States economy. Although marijuana is illegal, legalizing it would help to boost the U.S economy. It would also contribute to advances in medicine and offer relief for patients with painful and debilitating illnesses. Therefore, the federal government should consider legalizing marijuana. According to Narconon International (2013), “The use of marijuana/cannabis dates as far back as 2737 B.C. in writings for the Chinese Emperor Shen Nung”. The ancient use for marijuana focused on its medicinal powers. It was often used for the treatment of gout, malaria, and rheumatism. The ancient writings mentioned the euphoric state that could be achieved for the use of marijuana; however, the medicinal value was considered more important than the intoxicating properties that it possessed. Since ancient times the use of marijuana has spread from continent to continent. Marijuana was brought to the Americas around 1545. It made its way to the colony of Jamestown in the early 1600’s and it became a major crop. It the late 1800’s hemp as it was called at the time was being replace by cotton as a major cash crop in the southern United States. Even though it was not producing the revenue that it once had, it was being used in certain medications. It wasn’t until the 1920’S that marijuana became extremely...
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...Economically and culturally smoking is considered to be a “norm” within society. The government has policies on cigarettes that try to help reduce smoking, but in an effort to make more revenue the taxes that are placed on cigarettes are not so high that consumer usage will drastically decline and affect government revenue. The government has imposed quotas and tariffs on cigarettes to help regulate the importation of them. A country like the United States has a high border tariff, which the government likes, because its economic level of exporting is high. Countries that are considered to be third-world or developing nations tend to have low or no border tariffs on tobacco. By placing a tariff on tobacco, consumers lose, but the government earns income from it in the form of taxes. Quotas on the other hand, take some of what the consumers lose and give it to the suppliers who are fortunate enough to have their product shipped as part of the quota. For example, the few tobacco farmers in the United States who are granted quotas by the government earn a lot of money mainly because they have no shipping cost – government pays for their shipping cost. The government knows that cigarettes are a bad commodity but since the government makes money off of it, taxes are put in place. The taxes are not only put in place for the government to make money but an effort to reduce smoking, particularly amongst young people (MBN, 9). Young people are targeted the most because studies have...
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...Ban Smoking in America Americans waste billions of dollars each year on tobacco products. Other drugs that are harmful, such as crack or marijuana, are illegal in the United States. If certain harmful substances are illegal, then cigarettes should not be permitted either. Smoking cigarettes are a proven killer of millions worldwide annually, but is perfectly legal. Cigarettes have a large affect on society in the area of environmental problems it carries with it. Smoking obviously pollutes the air and it definitely causes a lot of litter. People who smoke usually throw their butts anywhere such as out a car window, in someone’s yard, or even in a stream. Litter from cigarette butts is such a big problem because they take 18 months to 10 years to biodegrade. According to the New Jersey-based American Littoral Society, experts say: Cigarette butts rank at the very top of litter problems -- not just for their ubiquity, but for their toxicity and non-biodegradable nature…An estimated 1.7 billion pounds of cigarette butts accumulate in lakes, oceans, on beaches and the rest of the planet annually. (Carlozo) Not only are the cigarette butts ugly to look at, they also adversely affect wildlife. Cigarette filters are made to trap the carcinogenic agents in the tobacco and when they are thrown on the ground, those substances make their way into aquatic ecosystems which could be a threat to the quality of water. Also, there have been cigarette butts found in the stomachs of fish and...
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...Medical Marijuana: More than a High Your Name COM/220 – Research Writing 8/2/2012 Instructor Name There has been much debate over the years about whether marijuana should be legalized for medical purposes. There are many arguments both for and against this issue. This paper will present facts to support the legalization of medicinal marijuana. It will also go over the arguments against the medical use of marijuana and show why these ideas are invalid. This can be a very morally based issue. Some people may ask, why is marijuana illegal when there are other substances frequently used that are so much worse for the human body? Others may say that the government made marijuana illegal for a reason. Marijuana has been legalized by state law for 16 U.S. states and DC, so why is it not legal for all 50 (Medical Marijuana ProCon, n.d.)? These are some of the things that will be addressed, along with many other questions that will be answered. By the end of this paper, it should be apparent that something should change. Marijuana should be legalized for medical use because of its advantages over other traditionally used drugs which are currently legal. The use of marijuana for its medical advantages has been recognized since before recorded history. There are written references that can be found as far back as the fifteenth century B.C. (Zeese, 1997). There were over 100 articles published in medical journals on the therapeutic use of cannabis between 1840 and 1900....
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...Marijuana Should NOT Be Legal in America All Americans have their ideas on legalizing marijuana, yet they need to make sure they have done substantial research using past experiences the American people have already experienced from using this drug; also they need to take a good look into what the actual outcomes are of smoking marijuana, before making a final decision on whether or not to legalize marijuana for medical purposes or any other reason. Americans will look at health and social issues as well as review money matters concerning legalizing marijuana and realize it is not right for the United States . First, Americans should know what marijuana actually is before they would even consider legalizing it. Marijuana, also known as pot, is a dried out weed that mixes the leaves, stems and even the flower of the cannabis, or the hemp plant and taken into the human body. It can be taken in by either smoking it or it taking it in with food. The main ingredient in marijuana is THC, which is short for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (National Institute on Drug Abuse). THC is the most psychoactive compound found in marijuana (Taylor). “Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug” (Wilbur, J). The ingredients in this plant are very dangerous and unhealthy for the human body. Now that Americans know what marijuana is, and some of the ingredients in it, they should consider the negative effect that marijuanahas in the health of the human body and...
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...Marijuana Legalization All across the United States there are prisons filled with men and women serving marijuana related crimes. Each one of these men and women go through the court systems, and this takes time and money away from our government. Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the world. Mainly people think of marijuana of the dirty drug out on the street, when actually marijuana has been proven to help people medically. Marijuana is a less harmful drug than alcohol and tobacco, and yet it is still illegal and millions of men and women are serving yearly sentences. A single person is yet to die from an over dose on marijuana, while millions of people die from alcohol and tobacco every year. If cannabis was legalized it would do many great things, such as create millions of new jobs. With the economy struggling right now in American this would help our country greatly. Another thing marijuana would do is eliminate the spending on preventing marijuana use in North and parts of South America. If marijuana was legal it would give our government more time to look at more important issues, instead of preventing the use and selling of cannabis. Our government could focus more on the War on Terror and prevent harsher drugs from entering the U.S. such as heroin, meth, and cocaine. Our society would completely change; marijuana would be off the streets and would be treated probably. You would see a decrease in marijuana use at a younger age because it would be more...
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