Thesis: Legalizing marijuana simply digs a deeper hole in the fight against harmful intoxicants.
Summary: The legalization of marijuana would have no benefits. To the contrary, doing so would simply add to the list of readily accessible and potentially addictive substances that can lead to irresponsible behavior and poor health. Given the widespread problems associated with addictive substances such as alcohol and tobacco, why should laws be altered to add another substance to this list? The fact that so many people break laws prohibiting marijuana use does not mean that these laws should be repealed.

Introduction
One function of government is to protect citizens from harm, whether it is from foreign enemies or from internal causes such as poisonous food or contaminated water. Similarly, the ban on marijuana protects citizens from the dangers of drug consumption, as well as potentially destructive behaviors associated with marijuana use.
With the possible exception of limited benefits in treating some diseases under a physician's direction, there are no advantages to the use of intoxicants such as marijuana or more potent drugs, including cocaine and heroin. This is not to say that individuals do not experience some momentary pleasure in consuming drugs-often at tremendous social costs. However, drug use can also wreak havoc on an individual's ability to experience all of the facets of life-from facing and overcoming challenges to enjoying times of great joy to relishing in simple pleasures.
Instead, substances like marijuana distort an individual's perceptions and cause an artificial sense of pleasure or satisfaction that can become addictive. Further, intoxicants rob individuals of the ability to see a clear path out of difficulties or toward being a fully productive individual in society. Although the temporary high of intoxicants can seem to diminish problems, this sense only lasts until the effects of the drugs wear off, and then individuals are faced with the same problems they were attempting to escape as well as the negative effects of drug use. Repeated use of intoxicants as an escape mechanism only delays the time when individuals have to face the consequences for their actions, and may ultimately lead to substantial problems such as addiction or the reduction of natural inhibitions from performing other dangerous acts.
A proposal to make the consumption of drugs known to lead to such consequences easier, cheaper, or less risky might seem wildly ill-considered, yet precisely such proposals are made by advocates of legalizing marijuana. The principle argument such advocates put forth is not that marijuana has advantages or benefits, but rather that this drug is no worse than other substances such as alcohol and tobacco that are legal in spite of the fact that their consumption has been linked by the medical establishment to potentially fatal diseases or dysfunctions (i.e., lung cancer, intoxication or addiction).
Marijuana vs. Alcohol and Tobacco
Alcohol use (and its potential abuse) is firmly entrenched in American society; it is widely accepted despite statistics linking excessive alcohol consumption to negative consequences in the lives of those who drink alcohol and their families. Tobacco use, on the other hand-once widespread and considered one of the minor "evils" of society-is now far less acceptable and generally prohibited in public indoor spaces.
Further, recent developments have shown that a determined effort by the government to discourage and even ban the use of tobacco can result in a sharp decline of tobacco use. Thus, advocates who suggest that marijuana use is not that much different from the use of tobacco face an increasingly shaky argument, as the public outcry to ban cigarette smoke and other forms of tobacco use from public forums has grown more insistent. With the possible exception of its use in carefully monitored medical treatments, advocates of legalizing marijuana have little remaining support for their cause.
Advocates of marijuana legalization also compare marijuana use to alcohol consumption, which is legal up to an amount determined by individual state laws. However, the fact that alcohol is legal does not make it desirable, nor does its legal status remove the serious health threats that remain from alcohol use. These threats range from acts committed while intoxicated (drunk driving being one of the most deadly) to health problems (e.g., cirrhosis of the liver) caused by alcohol poisoning from excessive drinking over a prolonged period of time.
Further, the consumption of alcohol has also been discouraged in the US. During the Prohibition era from 1922 to 1930, alcoholic beverages were banned in the United States. However, anti-alcohol laws were routinely violated and difficult to enforce, and Prohibition laws were ultimately repealed.
Similarly, marijuana use is illegal in the United States and in many other countries throughout the world. Although small amounts of marijuana have recently been deemed an accepted therapeutic treatment for certain health conditions by the health community, no other health or social benefits have been found to stem from marijuana use. Some states such as Oregon, Massachusetts and Michigan have passed legislation that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana or would permit its consumption for medicinal purposes. However, in 2005 the US Supreme Court ruled in Gonzales v. Raich that the Commerce Clause of the US Constitution, which gives Congress the right to regulate trade among the states, allows the federal government to ban the use of marijuana, even where states approve its use for medicinal purposes.
Conclusion
Even though the illegal use of marijuana continues to be widespread, the apparent failure of efforts to stamp out drug use is by no means an argument in favor of legalizing it, any more than the failure to stamp out other crimes (robbery, for example) is an argument for letting people steal without interference by the government. This is because there are simply no benefits from legalizing the drug. It is a myth that the use of marijuana has no downsides. Like other intoxicants, it can impair the user's ability to function (in driving a motor vehicle, for example), posing a threat to both the user and others (i.e., passengers, other motorists). Marijuana is a substance that, when routinely consumed, can lead to addictive behaviors that cause users to miss work, lose jobs, and neglect their families.
It is critical to understand that this discussion is about legalizing the recreational use of marijuana. This is not an argument against the medical use of marijuana as a therapeutic substance prescribed by registered physicians to treat certain conditions or to ease the painful side effects of other medical treatments. In dire medical circumstances, the medical use of marijuana may be the lesser of two evils between the consumption of the drug and the relief from symptoms associated with disease or other health conditions.
Ponder This:
1.Is there a benefit of marijuana use (except for medicinal purposes) that overrides its disadvantages?
2.When Prohibition failed, the consumption of alcohol had a long history as an acceptable social practice; this was not the case with marijuana. Does it make sense to make marijuana use more socially acceptable by legalizing it?
3.If moderate use of marijuana is not harmful, but is analogous to the occasional consumption of wine or liquor, what is the rationale for banning marijuana while allowing liquor and wine?
4.Does the government's interest in protecting citizens by banning marijuana extend to regulating a citizen's free choice to use other potentially harmful substances such as tobacco, alcohol, or fatty foods