America is facing a huge problem.

There has been an increase in marijuana users

and growers in the United States and our prisons are filled with them. Good people are

loosing their homes and possessions due to the government’s unfair treatment of a user.

Before I go to deep into this problem. First, I think ill explain just what marijuana is.

Shall we?

Marijuana, or marihuana, is a psychoactive drug that can relieve pain and nausea

when consumed in a smoke form or consumed in a physical form, such as brownies or

anything that you bake. Now marijuana has been used by humans since prehistory so it’s

nothing new to us. It also has a wide variety of names that it has picked up along the way,

such as pot, weed, dope, greens, the more scientific one cannabis, hashish, and many

more. In today’s age, it’s called “fire” (but you didn’t hear it from me). The only thing on

the plant you “should” smoke, or whatever one chooses to do, is the buds from a female

plant. What everyone is after is the delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or more commonly

known as THC is what gets you high. Also, unlike other drugs, marijuana does not cause

very much harm to the human body or mind like many think( but ill cover that later). It is

grown two ways, bioth of which will be covered later on as well. It is safe to use and

grow and its one of the only “organic” drugs. Now that we are all a little more informed

about this subject, how about we get to the problem.

As I had said before, our prisons are getting full and this is all due to the increase

of people using marijuana. Between October 1, 2004 and January 11, 2005, there were

1,777 Federal offenders sentenced for marijuana-related charges in U.S. Courts.

Approximately 94.9% of the cases involved marijuana trafficking. Between January 12,
2005 and September 30, 2005, there were 4,396 Federal offenders sentenced for

marijuana-related charges in U.S. Courts. Approximately 95.8% of the cases involved

trafficking. This shows the growing trend of marijuana, and no pun intended. What’s sad

about number like that is that many of those people are descent everyday people. Many of

these people are respectable tax payers. Also the government spends too much money

trying to solve a problem that they can not solve. I feel that the legalization of marijuana

would GREATLY benefit this country as a whole.

The legalization of marijuana would mean a huge income for the government.

Instead of using tax payer money to try and stop marijuana use, they could sell it like

liquor and tax it. Taxing the number one cash crop in the United States would bring in

billions of dollars. Just let people grow it in their homes and tax them for each plant.

Also, by letting families grow their own marijuana, we are building a stronger and closer

nit family. Children won’t have to try marijuana in a dangerous place when they first

have it. Instead they will be safe with their family. Parents will know what their son or

daughter are using because they will be the ones in charge of the marijuana. Also doing

this will allow the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to spend the money and time

they used to waste on pot, to go to real issues like cocaine, Meth, acid, man made drugs,

which cause more harm to the people.

This would bring in huge amounts of tourists from all over the world which would

bring in huge sums of cash. Like in Amsterdam we would set up coffee houses which

provide a safe environment for people to relax after a hard days work. Instead of going to

the bar and getting drunk and going home, if you even make it home alive, and then

beating your girlfriend or wife, you can go and “roll a joint” and you can go home feeling
calm and free. Beatings would drop dramatically. Oh, I apologize for getting ahead of

myself. Now back to the tourists. People will flock here from other countries, and there’s

this one thing tourists have a lot of…. MONEY! Something we need very badly right

now.

Another plus marijuana has is its medical uses. Some have argued that there truly

are no medical uses of marijuana but alas they are stupid, for lack of wanting to use a

better word. But anyway back to what I was saying. The truth is, the FDA in the United

States has approved marijuana as a treatment for cancer and the symptoms of HIV and

influenza. It helps with nausea and vomiting, anorexia, and weight loss. Marijuana is well

confirmed in treating spasticity, painful conditions, especially neurogenic pain,

movement disorders, asthma, and glaucoma. It also helps people with depresion, high

levels of stress, and , in some cases for some people, improve learning skills. Glaucoma,

a condition of increased pressure within the eyeball causing gradual loss of sight, can be

treated with medical marijuana to decrease this intraocular pressure. t is also reported to

be beneficial for treating certain neurological illnesses such as epilepsy, and bipolar

disorder. Case reports have found that cannabis can relieve tics in people with obsessive

compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome. Another potential use for medical marijuana

is movement disorders. Marijuana is frequently reported to reduce the muscle spasms

associated with multiple sclerosis. As you can see, marijuana has many medical uses.so

why keep it locked up and illeagal? I just don’t know.

Another plus is that it will open the minds of so many. People will start inventing

new ways to make our world better. art and music will flow from people. It will be what I

like to call a Green Age. Using the plant as hemp will make the United States one of the
greenest nations out there. Hemp can be used to make almost anything and I mean

anything. It can power our cars, cloth our bodies, heat our homes, be what our homes are

made of and the lists goes on and on.

Now some say that marijuana is a gateway drug to other, more harmful drugs. But

once again, these silly people are wrong. The idea of it being a gateway drug is a well

known misnomer, for tobacco and alcohol are just as gatewayish( please don’t take points

off for making my own word.). Another gateway hypothesis is that while cannabis is not

as harmful or addictive as any other drugs, a gateway effect may be detected as a result of

the "common factors" involved with using any illegal drug. Because of its illegal status,

cannabis users are more likely to be in situations which allow them to become acquainted

with people who use and sell other illegal drugs. By this argument, some studies have

shown that alcohol and tobacco may also be regarded as gateway drugs. At least one

source has suggested that the practice of mixing tobacco with cannabis can be a gateway

to nicotine dependence and we all know what comes from that.

Some would say that marijuana can cause cancer but that is also a well

constructed lie. People who smoke marijuana, even heavy, long-term marijuana users,

do not appear to be at increased risk of developing lung cancer, according to a study

to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May

23rd 2008. Marijuana smoking also did not appear to increase the risk of head and

neck cancers, such as cancer of the tongue, mouth, throat, or esophagus. Also a

compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer from spreading throughout the

body, according to a new study by scientists at California Pacific Medical Center

Research Institute and good news to all the people with cancer. The researchers are
hopeful that a compound called CBD, which is found in cannabis sativa, could be a

non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy. Also just to throw in some statistics annually,

tobacco kills 435,000. Poor diet and physical inactivity kills 365,000. Alcohol kills

85,000. Microbial agents kill 75,000. Toxic agents kill 55,000. Motor vehicle crashes

kill 26,347. Bad side-effects to prescription drugs kill 32,000. Suicide kills 30,622.

Incidents involving firearms kill 29,000. Homicide deaths are 20,308. EVEN sexual

behaviors have 20,000 deaths a year! And I’m not even done yet. All illicit drug use,

direct and indirect kills 17,000. ASPIRIN kills 7,600 a year! And last but not least, we

have the big, bad, deadly M-A-R-I-J-U-A-N-A coming in with a whopping ZERO.

There has never once been a single death from marijuana.

This great, strong, beautiful country of ours has a goldmine that is really

green. We need to tap it and take advantage of it. This truly can be done with an end

result of true wealth and growth. Not only will our markets and banks and money

grow, but more importantly, our minds and spirits will become stronger. The people

and its government will finally be able to live together. Thank you.
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"Cannabis (drug) -." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 08 Feb. 2009

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_(drug)>.

"FOXNews.com - Marijuana Compound May Stop Breast Cancer From Spreading, Study

Says - Health News | Current Health News | Medical News." Breaking News |

Latest News | Current News - FOXNews.com. 08 Feb. 2009

<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,312132,00.html>.

"Study Finds No Link Between Marijuana Use And Lung Cancer." Science Daily: News

& Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 08 Feb. 2009

<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/05/060526083353.htm>.