Marijuana Legalization Essay, Research Paper

I personally don?t smoke marijuana I?ll admit I tried it once but quickly rethought my decision after having the feelings that my lungs were going to collapse and my throat was on fire. However I have more friends that partake is smoking marijuana than not, in truth at least 75% of my friends are smokers. And that?s fine with me, I am a firm believer in the philosophy that a persons life is theirs to do with what they will. If my friends would rather use a drug to make themselves happy rather than just try to have a good time without than that is their decision. I don?t feel that it?s right for the police or anyone else to step in with the exception of their parents or other loved ones. And there are other things to look at than just my personal feelings on the issue, like that the United States could make millions of dollars just by taxing marijuana let alone that hemp can be made into paper and clothing and can grow in almost any weather. And from some research that I?ve done the one drug that really should be illegal in the U.S. is alcohol rather than marijuana, from what I?ve seen and read marijuana is far less costly and dangerous than alcohol. One of the prime examples of this is alcohol poisoning, I?ve seen at least 5 of my friends go through some of the worst stuff I?ve ever seen a human body go through because they didn?t know when to stop and drank tell someone had to call 911. On the other hand the very worst thing that I?ve seen happen to a friend that was going on weed was him running around in a circle three times then passing out on the floor. Other things that make marijuana less of a problem than alcohol is behavior, I have seriously never seen any just plain high people get into a fight, it?s only when people start drinking that they get aggressive and start raising a ruckus. Other thing that I?ve personally noticed is that when a person is drunk they tend to want to go somewhere and in order to do that they would of course have to drive and we all know what that can lead to. Of course I?ve also observed that when people smoke weed they get a strong urge to sit around and to do absolutely nothing, the one thing that they might leave the house for is food, and that can be fixed by calling Pizza Hut or something. Other reasons that people have for not liking marijuana is they say it?s a gateway drug. They say that weed is just the beginning and that people usually end up doing speed or acid or something. Of course this can be true but there is a good reason for this happening. Because of marijuana?s illegality my friends have to find a dealer, and since the dealer is already selling one illegal drug what?s keeping him from selling any other drugs that he thinks he can make a buck off of. But of course most normal people won?t take a drug like crack or acid due to knowing the effects can be permanent damage to the brain or other body parts. But after a bowl or two people are a lot more susceptible to suggestion. But don?t get me wrong or nothing I know that if marijuana were to be legalized there would be laws to go with it. Like it would be a 21 and older drug and you would have to have a license to sell it and pretty much all the other laws that go with alcohol would go with weed. But people could go to a local mini-mart rather than a back alley crack house and since hemp could be made into paper rather than trees it would also help the environment. And of course the extra money to go to the government could go to the school system or to help fund law enforcement agencies like the DEA.