Essay about Marijuana Laws Prohibition Revisited

Ever since the federal criminalization of marijuana in the United States in 1937, there has been a large underground drug market (Paul). Much like how the prohibition of alcohol simply forced imbibers underground, those who chose to partake in marijuana are forced to stay away from the prying eye of the law because of present marijuana laws. This means the drug world is concealed from the average citizen, hiding the dangers of drug deals gone wrong, police shootings, and other dangerous occurrences. In a way this allows the government to mask the fact that their well-funded ‘War on Drugs’ is ineffective, a ‘War’ with a budget of roughly twenty billion dollars; which is not profoundly effective in the curbing the use of drugs (Jillette). If†¦show more content†¦While such popular and potent drugs (alcohol and nicotine) are legally available to the public, there is fallacious logic in outlawing a drug less exponentially less dangerous and far less add ictive than these two easily accessible drugs. Alcohol and nicotine are infinitely more harmful to the human body than marijuana, cannabis simply not toxic enough to kill (In Pot). Marijuana is demonized by the government and much of the media as a dangerous drug, while the deaths of roughly 50,000 people in The United States per year can be contributed to alcohol and 440,000 to tobacco. All the while, marijuana has never directly caused the death of anybody in the entire history of mankind (Jillette). While some would expect marijuana to be at least as carcinogenic as tobacco, recent medical journals have found no link between smoking marijuana and lung cancer (Boyles). One example given in one study was that two-pack-a-day cigarette smokers saw a 20-fold increase in cancer risk when compared to non-smokers, while no elevation in risk was observed in even the heaviest (22,000+ joints smoked in lifetime) smokers of marijuana (Boyles). Any consistent person that believes marijuana sh ould stay illegal should also believe alcohol and cigarettes should be made illegal, by the same reasoning. The reformation of marijuana laws and the outright federal legalization of marijuana in The United States would extremelyShow MoreRelatedArgumentative Essay About Marijuana1308 Words   |  6 Pagesfor children to obtain it. Before delving into the positives of using marijuana, people need to consider the successful people that have made it where to prosperous positions despite Marijuana consumption. 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