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Phuoc Tran

Prof Thu Nguyen

ENGL 1302

December 8, 2015

Legalizing marijuana

Nowadays, legalizing marijuana is one of important issues that being debated by the citizens as well as the government. Some people argue that legalizing marijuana is very necessary because of their medical purposes and entertainment. On the other hand, some people claim that it should not be legalized and strictly prohibited because it can addict people then badly affect in society. In my opinion, marijuana has both of advantages and disadvantages.

Marijuana goes by many names like weed, pot, or cannabis which is an extract of cannabis sativa plant. Its main active chemical is 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The plant’s leaves, flower, seeds and stem are usually rolled and smoked as a cigarette; however, it is also able to mix into our food, smoothie to eat but with less effect of highness. Marijuana has been used for medical purpose or food for centuries in many countries and culture in the world. First, Doctors appointed medical marijuana because it can help relieve pain, nausea caused by chemotherapy in people with cancer. The scientists demonstrated that THC is not only capable of inhibiting the growth of tumors, but also prevent metastasis. Moreover, it come from nature so it safer than doing chemotherapy in healing cancer. Therefore, doctor priority use the products from marijuana, such as oil, capsules rather than chemotherapy or radiotherapy especially for children. Besides that, some studies also show that cannabis can reduce seizures in people with epilepsy; reduce multiple sclerosis symptoms, such as muscle stiffness, spasms, pain and frequent urination. However, users can lead to short-term side effects such as mood swings, making users feel happy, relaxed, and sleepy but it can also cause confusion short-term memory and ability to make decisions. These effects can last up to several hours. If using large doses of medical marijuana, can make some people have hallucinations and paranoia, even cause breathing problems and bronchitis worse. The long-term side effects for those who use medical marijuana as respiratory problems like cough and high risk of lung infections.

Beside medical purposes, legalize marijuana also bring a good method to solve some social problems. Colorado is a great example. After legalize marijuana in January 2014, the crime rate in Denver, Colorado decrease 2.2% in the first 11 months in 2014, compared with the first 11 months of 2013. Moreover, burglaries in Denver decreased by 9.5% and overall property crime decreased by 8.9% (drugpolicies.org). In addition, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation, a number of death caused by traffic accidents dropped surprisingly. Especially, there were only 436 situations within the first 11 months in 2014, went down 3% compared with 449 situations in the same period in 2013. Furthermore, legalize marijuana can brings many economic benefits. For example, the city of Denver has around 650 thousand people, but it has more than 60 stores that sell marijuana and items related to cannabis. There are also a large amount of visitors came here, and it created a lot of jobs for people. According to the Department of Revenue, 16,000 people were licensed to work in the marijuana industry as of December 31, 2014. It makes Colorado has the fastest growing economy in the United States, and Colorado’s unemployment rate is at a six-year low. It is a good logos to explain why government should think about legalize pot in the United State.