There are many arguments on the question of whether or not to legalize marijuana.
The benefits of legalizing marijuana include its medicinal value and its many uses to
produce commercial products like paper, rope, oil, textiles, and canvas. Another good
reason to legalize marijuana is that hundreds of thousands of non-violent drug offenders
are overpopulating prisons, costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Legalization would also
put marijuana dealers out of business and it would bring revenue to the government like
alcohol and tobacco does. Some opposition to legalizing marijuana is that traffic fatalities
would increase, and that more people like school teachers and bus drivers would be
smoking legally purchased marijuana. They also believe that more young people would
smoke more marijuana.
Marijuana is medicine and has been used as medicine for thousands of years to
treat a wide variety of ailments. It is one of the safest therapeutically active substances
known. Marijuana is often useful in the treatment of cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, multiple
sclerosis, epilepsy and chronic pain. For cancer patients, marijuana alleviates the nausea,
vomiting, and loss of appetite caused by chemotherapy treatment. It does the same for
people with AIDS. By reducing intraocular pressure, marijuana helps slow or halt the
gradual increasing eye pressure suffered by glaucoma patients. Marijuana reduces the
muscle pain and spastically caused by multiple sclerosis. It also helps some patients control
their bladders. With some epileptic patients, marijuana prevents seizures. Marijuana is also
a very effective pain reliever.
Hemp, a plant mainly grown for its use as a fiber source, is from the same plant
that produces marijuana. It is different because industrial hemp is grown with minute
amounts of delta-9 and tetrahydrocannibinol, abbreviated as THC, which is the element in
marijuana that gives the 'high sensation'. Industrial hemp is one of nature's strongest...