This final paper will discuss the
benefits following the legalization of marijuana. Just touching on a few of the
many positive outcomes of this, its relativity to the former alcohol
prohibition, the major decrease in crime rate and the decline in taxes to
support those in jail, as well as its profound medicinal contributions will be
the major supportive points made.
When the alcohol prohibition came in
to effect in 1920, it was one of most infamous, times in recent American
history. Considered by many as a failed social and political experiment, the
era changed the way many Americans view alcoholic beverages, enhancing the
realization that federal government control cannot always take the place of
personal responsibility. The era is associated with gangsters, bootleggers,
speakeasies, rum-runners and an overall chaotic situation. The period began
with general acceptance by the public and ended in 1933 with the public's
annoyance of the law and the ever-increasing enforcement nightmare.
Upon the legalization of marijuana, both
crime rates and the money the public is forced to spend in taxes to hold those
with marijuana-related cases to nose dive. Thousands and thousands of people
are locked up every year as a result of marijuana, whether it is possession,
under the influence, or dealing. Cells across the United States are filled with
citizens with a clean record and a marijuana charge and the people’s tax
dollars must keep them in there. People are unable to get a job merely because
of traces of marijuana in the system. In addition, legalization would bring
weed shops so that drug dealers would be forced to stop selling and buyers
would no longer be in risk buying it off the street.
Most important are all the benefits
of marijuana and its medicinal benefits and purposes. Over the years, marijuana
cannabis has become a popular approach to relieving everything from back pain
to depression. There are five major reasons for its healing use. One common use
of medical cannabis is to ease the symptoms of nausea. In trials conducted by
National Cancer Institute, two FDA-approved cannabis-based drugs helped to
reduce chemotherapy-related nausea and vomiting in cancer patients. Another
common use for medicinal cannabis is stimulating appetite, important to those
with HIV/AIDS and those going through chemotherapy who have a major loss of appetite.
Another effect of medical cannabis is the ability to relax muscle tension. In
studies performed on severely disabled MS patients, an intake of THC produced a
decrease in tremors and muscle stiffness. There has also long
been a belief that cannabis provides an analgesic quality to those suffering
from chronic pain. Those suffering from neuropathic pain - commonly caused by
alcoholism, amputation, spine surgery, HIV or MS - often turn to medicinal
cannabis as a source of relief. Finally, many users of
medicinal cannabis also use the substance as a means to relieve anxiety and
certain sleep disorders such as insomnia.