Legalizing Marijuana Will Drecrease Use Essay - 594 Words

Legalization of Marijuana Should marijuana be legalized? This has been an enormous controversial issue for the last couple of decades. It’s a drug that can be good for you, yet cause many great dangers. There are many views supporting and opposing the legalization of cannabis. A patient suffering from AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and other serious conditions often find marijuana the most effective treatment. In some cases it may be the only remedy. (2nd or not) As of November 2000, there are only 8 patients receiving marijuana legally as a form of medication. There are thousands of people using the drug illegal to help them cope with their disease. Presently, patients can be arrested and sent to prison for using marijuana --†¦show more content†¦Such a comparison can be made between a knife and a gun, prescription drugs being the knife and marijuana the gun. They are both potentially lethal and incredibly dangerous but they have their differences. With a knife, you have to be careless enough to fall on it. With a gun, all you have to be is stupid enough to mess with it. Legalization will increase use of the drug. However, many supporters of continuing the illegalization of drugs believe that by legalizing drugs they will become more accessible and use will therefore increase. They base this argument on past experiment dealing with alcohol prohibition. After the end of prohibition with the 21st amendment, alcohol consumption doubled while prohibition decreased use by 50 percent (Light). They also cite that use of marijuana peaked in 1979 when there was a decriminalization of drug use by eleven states. When researching to find if a particular solution will prove to be fuse, it is important to look at historical examples and learn from them. In Liverpool, England, after a recent legalization of drugs in a regulatory program that focuses on the medical benefits of drugs, most drug pushers have left town because there is no longer a mar ket for them (Cotton). This shows that legalization actually decreases use because of the increased emphasis on rehabilitation and the decrease of drug pushers. In