The legalization of marijuana has been a controversial topic in the United States for many years, regardless of the other surrounding countries who have legalized it. As of today, all states, except 17 of them, have legalized marijuana in at least one way, medical or recreational. Marijuana should be legalized because it would benefit us and provide solutions to many problems that exist in today’s society.
During the first four years of Colorado’s legal recreational sales, the tax revenues jumped 266 percent. They started from 67 million dollars in 2014 and climbed clear up to 247.7 million dollars in 2017. Colorado’s tax revenues have continued to increase each year since recreational legalization. People who use marijuana are going to use marijuana, regardless. So it only makes sense to gain some revenue off of it, rather than letting dealers make money tax-free.
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Colorado’s marijuana taxes are spent in areas that, if invested in the same ones here, would benefit our society greatly. Some examples of areas would be public school projects, public affairs, human services, agriculture, judicial affairs, labor, and employment, or even health care policy. Just because Colorado chooses these areas doesn’t mean we would have to do every single one of those, as well. For example, if Kansas were to legalize marijuana, we could invest it in the areas that our state lacks the most. In Kansas, most would agree that our public schools are not receiving adequate funding. Our state’s budget may be a little tight, but education is essential. By legalizing marijuana, we can use the tax revenues to our advantage and better our school system.
Even if you are not a recreational cannabis supporter, you can not deny the fact that it has been scientifically proven to be beneficial to those who suffer from certain medical conditions. As cannabis is not necessarily a cure for the said conditions, it is a cure for the symptoms of the conditions and allows some of those who are affected by them to live better quality of lives. One of the most common conditions that cannabis is prescribed for is multiple sclerosis. Multiple sclerosis affects about 400,000 people in the United States. For those who do not know, multiple sclerosis is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord. With this disease comes chronic pain, mobility issues, and vision problems. Research published in the Multiple Sclerosis Journal found that cannabis-based medicinal extracts can significantly reduce the severity of these symptoms and pain associated with multiple sclerosis while having few adverse effects on patients.
Another frequent medical condition cannabis is prescribed for is HIV/AIDS. While the treatments for HIV/AIDS have come a long way in allowing those affected to live long and healthy lives, the side effects of their treatments can be challenging to deal with. Several studies have shown that medical cannabis can improve many HIV/AIDS-related symptoms, such as severe nausea, anorexia, weight loss, and more. For instance, a study published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management found that: 97 percent of HIV patients reported improved appetite with medical cannabis treatment, 94 percent experienced reduced muscle pain, and 93 percent reported improvements to both nausea and anxiety. With this being said, the 1.1 million people living in the United States who have been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS could have a better quality of life after treatment with legal access to cannabis.
HIV/AIDS is not the only high fatality medical condition that cannabis helps, but cancer is one as well. Although cannabis does not cure cancer, it can drastically reduce the severity of the symptoms and nausea that comes with cancer, and the treatment of chemotherapy. For someone who is especially battling a more severe stage of cancer, cannabis use can also improve the quality of their end of life care and could make their final days a little easier and less painful to go through (according to whom?). The last condition that I will mention that benefits from cannabis are epilepsy. Cannabis-based medicines and CBD-dominant products, in particular, have been proven to be very effective at reducing the frequency and severity of epileptic seizures.
WJust by taking these four particular conditions into account, with 400,000 people affected by multiple sclerosis, 1.1 million people affected by HIV/AIDS, 1.8 million people a year affected by cancer, and finally 3.4 million people affected by epilepsy in the United States, this totalstotaling up to about 6.7 million people that could benefit from marijuana. This means that just from the four common conditions I listed, the legalization of medical marijuana could benefit 6.7 million people’s lives (repetitive). Not only are the victims and survivors of these conditions benefitting, but every family member of those affected with those conditions are, as well as our nation as a whole financially. As if they did not make enough already, legalizing marijuana as a pharmaceutical drug would bring all that much more revenue into our pharmacies and healthcare. After all, it is a drug, and it can be treated just like many other drugs that our industry prices ridiculously high to receive absurd amounts of profits that a typical American can not afford, but thankfully, our insurances can. Perhaps an idea could be to specifically make medical marijuana revenues benefit and go to research for the conditions receiving the marijuana in the first place.
One thing that is mind-boggling to me is that we as a nation can legalize a substance like alcohol: that has no medical benefits by consuming it, and that causes more fatalities than marijuana ever will, but we can not legalize marijuana even as a medicine that would benefit millions. Alcohol is legal across the United States to anyone who is above the age of 21. When Which even when used after that age, is used irresponsibly it, and is to blame for one American life being lost every 20 minutes due to alcohol-related auto crashes. Every year 708,000 people are injured in alcohol-related crashes, but marijuana use has not been proven to cause auto crashes, according to a study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Admission in Virginia.
Although a possible side effect of marijuana is altered motor skills, that is a common side effect of other legal substances, such as alcohol and, as well as other prescription drugs. Marijuana does have the potential to have harmful effects on the body. Just as heavy use of alcohol, meth, and heroin, it use can cause irreversible brain damage. P, prolonged marijuana abuse can affect the brain’s ability to convey messages. The results of abusing marijuana can be poor memory and trouble concentrating. Although there is not as much research on the effects of marijuana when it is started as adults as there are kids, they do know that when used regularly as an adolescent, they typically grow up to have lower IQs. The amount of brain cells killed off by marijuana has been found to depend upon the amount a person has smoked and their age ofs use. The effects of marijuana on the brain mostly affect individuals under 25, as their brains are still developing. So how do you counter that critical fact??
Writing this essay as someone who has never smoked and as someone who used to have a completely different view on marijuana use until being adequately educated on it, after realizing that my old stance on this topic was construed off of misconceived ideas. Overall, I believe there are too many benefits that outweigh the risks of marijuana use. If used responsibly, especially for medical purposes, it can benefit and change lives for the better. People do things with risks every day, and sometimes the things they do, do not even contain any benefits. If something has been proven to benefit those in need of relief from certain conditions, why should we keep it out of their reach? After all, if you knew the chance existed for you to have a better or easier life after being affected by a medical condition, would you not want to be able to decide for yourself if you should be allowed to take the “risk”? You may not be affected by something that cannabis can help you get through or live with now, but someday you may be. Therefore, marijuana should be legalized because it would benefit us and provide solutions to many problems that exist in today’s society.
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