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Lincoln Matheson
7/22/15
Professor Celestino
ENLG 1010 12:00 pm
Argument Essay
Pot or Not: Should America Legalize Marijuana?

Since 1996 when proposition 215 was passed in California, medical marijuana has been
allowed in some areas of the United States, and recreational use of marijuana was legalized in
Colorado in 2014.. Many changes have taken place in the areas with the more lenient marijuana
laws. Changes in the suicide rates, changes in the incarceration rates, new taxation opportunities,
and many other notable cultural changes have begun to transform these areas. For better or
worse, there is a chance marijuana will be legal federally very soon. This would mean anyone
over twenty-one years of age would be able to walk into a specialized store and peruse through a
variety of cannabis-based consumables, make a selection, and bring the purchase out into the
public domain. A new standard for the amount of marijuana in circulation would be set and the
number of marijuana smokers in the United States would skyrocket. This could end very well.
Marijuana legalization could stimulate the economy, keep peaceful pot-smokers out of drug
court and prisons, lower suicide rates, and help people struggling with disease and even some
forms of mental illness.
In the 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health, an article titled Developing
Public Health Regulations for Marijuana: Lessons From Alcohol and Tobacco

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analyzes the restrictions the United States has on recreational drugs and proposes valid ideas for
regulating marijuana use based on those lessons. The first portion of the article lists the scenarios
that need to be minimized and why, while the second half lists some potential ways to minimize
the frequency of said scenarios. The serious potential problems the article lists are: the
availability of marijuana to youth, drugged driving, the risk of dependency and addiction,
consumption of marijuana products with unwanted contaminants and uncertain potency, and
concurrent use of marijuana and alcohol. If any of these potential dangers became a serious
problem, they would damage the well being of society, and this would be a reason to keep
marijuana illegal. But potential solutions to these potential problems exist, and although some
solutions may be difficult to put into effect, federally legalizing marijuana has the potential to do
many progressive things for America. Thus the fundamental question is this: can America
regulate marijuana well enough to make the benefits of legalization outweigh the potential
consequences? The answer is yes, because in America the government has successfully
regulated alcohol and tobacco, and it should be able to do so with marijuana as well.
The hardest to regulate of these potential problems resulting from that legalization would
probably be keeping marijuana out of underage hands. Studies have shown that heavy marijuana
use as a teenager has a high chance to lead to a discontented life. In 2010 the American Journal
on Addictions published the results of a small study led by Stephen Jaffe of Emory University
and Matthew Klein of Midwestern University. The study consisted of a six-question survey
given to child psychiatrists in California. The responses to the questions indicated that the
legalization of medical marijuana makes youth more inclined to ignore the downsides of
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marijuana, specifically the loss of motivation and short-term memory loss. The study also
concluded that out of the 89 psychiatrists who answered the question-- Are children having
more complicated issues that resulted from marijuana use?--61 of them answered yes.
Underage marijuana use may even be more harmful then underage drinking. This would
be debateable because drinking when your frontal lobe isn't fully developed can lead to a diverse
array of bad situations, including an early grave, whereas marijuana will almost never kill
anyone but can ruin a life by turning young kids into stoners. Marijuana causes a loss of
motivation, and when one is not motivated the easiest thing to do is sedate oneself. More
marijuana seems to do that job beautifully. For most people who use pot, there is no hangover to
help teach moderation the hard way, There is not an uncomfortable sensation when it is used in
excess. It is easy to see how easy it is to slip into weekly and then daily use, especially for kids
who do not have many serious responsibilities or people depending on them. When someone
uses marijuana daily, no matter what age the person is, learning becomes more difficult. Thus it
is no wonder why daily marijuana smokers have below-average high school graduation rates.
Legalizing marijuana might make marijuana more available, but also could help the
youth who are at risk for marijuana addiction. It will make marijuana harder to obtain for the
majority of kids because adults will have more knowledge about the behavior of a marijuana user
and will be able to regulate their child's behavior without the fear of their kids doing time in jail.
Adults with marijuana-addicted kids will have somewhere to turn instead of just trying their best
to hide the behavior and pretend that it isn't happening. Marijuana would be harder to find in the
streets because illegal marijuana dealers would have too much competition for the risk and
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wouldn't be able to make any money. Although some kids will get hooked because of
legalization, some kids who would get hooked might not get to be that way, and those who do
become addicted have people and organizations to turn to without the fear of jail time.
Driving a car high on marijuana is easier than driving a car drunk on alcohol. Its true that
restrictions need to be put into place but even with inadequate restrictions, Colorado is doing
reasonably well in terms of road collisions and fatalities. If marijuana is legalized, a better
system than a blood test needs to be applied to catch people who are too high to be driving. The
problem would still exist even if we had a quick and non-invasive way to test how much
marijuana is in someone's system, however, because everyone can handle marijuana differently.
This is definitely one area of the effects of legalization that will need to be explored and studied
thoroughly.
Suicide is a serious problem in America today. Legalizing marijuana medicinally may
have already helped lower suicide rates in men aged 20-39. According to the 2014 issue of the
American Journal of Public Health, suicide rates dropped about ten percent for these age groups
of men after full legalization of medical marijuana in the state surveyed. Ten percent may not
seem that high, but it is important to keep in mind that human lives are the quantitative data for
this study. Pot is less addictive than opiates, and there is no chance of a fatal overdose, making it
a great pain killer. A strain of pot called Charlotte's Web has been proven to help epileptic
children not have seizures, and it can be made into an oil that has a low THC concentration (the
psychoactive chemical contained in pot). Marijuana has beneficial uses that are being
discovered on a regular basis, and the vast majority of them are medical. The knowledge the
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scientific community would gain if marijuana was legal has the potential to do a lot of
good for people.
In more practical terms, if marijuana was legal then taxing it would keep the price high
enough to prevent people from buying huge amounts and the government would make a great
deal of money in tax revenue. Right now most of the money that is being made off of marijuana
is illegal, and it is going to into the pockets of criminals. These dealers dont care who they sell
to and will sell to people under 21 just as readily as they will to people of legal age.
While there are countless reasons to legalize marijuana all across America, the health and
well-being of the American people is the main reason. We incarcerate far too many people in
America today and people jailed for being marijuana users are almost all peaceful criminals.
Whether your priority is money or human rights or freedom, it does not make any sense to keep
pot illegal. Legalization needs to happen all over America and it needs to happen now. Too
many people are rotting in jail right now for something that decreases suicide rates and has other
potential advantages.

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Works Cited
Anderson, D. Mark, Daniel I. Rees, and Joseph J. Sabia. "Medical Marijuana Laws And Suicides

By Gender And Age." American Journal Of Public Health 104.12 (2014): 2369-2376.
PsycINFO. Web. 20 July 2015.
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo, et al. "Developing Public Health Regulations For
Marijuana: Lessons From Alcohol And Tobacco." American Journal Of Public
Health 104.6 (2014): 1021-1028. PsycINFO. Web. 20 July 2015.
Jaffe, Steven L., and Matthew Klein. "Medical Marijuana And Adolescent Treatment." The
American Journal On Addictions 19.5 (2010): 460-461. PsycINFO. Web. 20 July 2015.