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Argument Essay - Grade: A-
Principles of English Composition II (ENGL 1213)
University of Oklahoma
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Flower Power Throughout history, marijuana has been smoked for a vast array of reasons: religious happenings, rituals, recreation, and medicinal purposes. Marijuana is the flower, stem, and seeds of the Cannabis Sativa or Cannabis Indica plant. The plant contains mind altering THC and other similar chemicals. THC overruns certain brain cell receptors, and it can have good effects on the body. People smoke marijuana in joints, water pipes, blunts, and vaporizers. The war on marijuana in the United States has led to the growth of the violent, criminal, and illegal black market. The article Federal Marijuana Law explains that “marijuana is illegal, both usage and possession, under the Controlled Substance Act even if states legalize it”. The Federal Government classifies marijuana in the same category as heroin, a schedule one drug, which means it is perceived to have no medical value and a very high potential to be abused. The legal position of marijuana has been debated for many years. The highly controversial issue, regarding the legalization of marijuana, surfaces in newspapers repeatedly. As of today, 29 states have legal use of medical marijuana while 6 states have legal use of both recreational and medical marijuana. In states where it is not legal, the growing, selling, and consumption of marijuana results in severe consequences, including possible imprisonment. The Federal Government has not legalized marijuana, and only individual states’ laws regarding marijuana have changed. The Drug Policy Alliance wants to begin regulating marijuana like alcohol or tobacco. Now more than ever, public support for legalization of marijuana is at an all- time high. Users and non-users are both very invested in the outcome of this debate and how laws could possibly be changed in the near future. The Federal Government should take the time to fully legalize marijuana for the United States because the marijuana movement could help
stabilize the economy, provide a source of a natural alternative medicine, and create a healthy impact on the Earth. Marijuana is an effective source of a natural medicine. It has been proven to treat several debilitating conditions, and even life-threatening diseases. Marijuana can be a safe and effective treatment for the symptoms of cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, glaucoma, epilepsy, and other conditions. Marijuana, in its natural form, can be one of the safest pain reducing and therapeutically treated medicines. It also reduced nausea and pain that patients felt on a day-to-day basis, especially for those facing cancer chemotherapy and glaucoma. Patients who are being put through chemotherapy to treat their cancers are in extreme pain and agony almost every day. Some side effects of chemotherapy include fatigue, headaches, muscle pain, stomach pain, pain from nerve damage, nausea, and the list goes on. Medical Marijuana would have the ability to genuinely help American citizens who suffer from certain medical problems and alleviate their everyday, chronic pains. A small dosage is enough to “treat the conditions that doctors are trying to reverse,” and, therefore, doctors claim that the patient “isn’t using enough marijuana to become dependent on it” (Marijuana as Medicine). Doctors constantly prescribe highly addictive, chemically made opiates to patients every day; marijuana is a safer substitution for opiates. When addiction to opiates sets in, the person is unable to control the aspects of the addiction without help because of the mental or physical conditions involved. Addiction can sometimes lead to serious problems at home, work, school, socially, and mentally. Marijuana has been reported as helping chronic, painful medical conditions, and it is a natural substitute to pharmaceutically prescribed medicines. Any other effects marijuana has is interpreted by medical marijuana advocators as trivial to society at large. Legalization of marijuana would allow advanced research concerning the drug to move
In addition to marijuana legalization supporting the economy, there would be a positive environmental impact of growing marijuana throughout the country. The policy argument regarding marijuana legalization and the environmental harm associated with growing illegal marijuana in patchy, unconcise areas has greatly been neglected. The regulation is the reason the environment has stress factors, not marijuana. The supporters claim, “the uneven legal status of marijuana takes a toll on the environment because the Federal Government cannot evenly enforce rules and regulations for growing marijuana” (Pantsios). The Federal Government legalizing marijuana would give governmental organizations the chance to put forth new rules for the entire country on how to grow marijuana plants without destroying the environment. Legalizing marijuana would halt the strain on public lands and require higher standards to be met for the use and disposal of toxic substances. Complete legalization could easily remove the stresses of marijuana cultivation on the environment. Legalization would also reduce the environmental impacts of smuggling marijuana across the Mexico/United States border. Environmentalists stress that “the Drug Cartels use harmful animal poison and diesel tanks to preserve their illegal growing facilities” (Half-Baked Idea?). When marijuana is legal, growers would no longer have to hide their cultivation of the marijuana and would abstain from having to use dangerous and harmful poisons and storage tanks. Not only would the Earth be healthier, but humans would not have to breathe in the fumes or be exposed to other toxic chemicals that surround an illegal growing field. Also, legalizing marijuana would lead to less energy usage and a smaller carbon footprint because growers would no longer have to use artificial lights for growing illegal marijuana. The light that marijuana plants need to grow would be provided naturally by the sun.
Marijuana is not a gateway drug, unlike what most people believe. Gateway drugs are the drugs that may lead to the use of harder, dangerous, and addictive substances. The gateway drugs that most people know and think about are alcohol and tobacco. Alcohol and tobacco use open the doors to drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and meth, which are extremely addictive substances. Marijuana is not a drug that someone can be addicted to. By comparison, people are much more likely to become addicted to alcohol and tobacco. If a drug is going to be banned based on how addictive it is, marijuana should be rather low on the list. Marijuana is nowhere near as bad for you as cigarettes and alcohol, both of which are legal. Overdosing on alcohol can kill you, as can the drug’s withdrawal symptoms. Employees of The Center for Disease Control “attribute around 37,000 deaths every year to alcohol” (Alcohol Deaths). On the other hand, prescription drugs kill people in the United States on a bigger scale and at a faster rate. Death by marijuana overdose is unheard of. It has been concluded that there is no association at all between marijuana use and lung cancer and that smoking marijuana may even offer some protection against cancer. Marijuana was classified under Schedule I due to a lack of evidence that it was harmful, not an abundance of evidence. The original idea was for it to remain under Schedule I only until the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse released its recommendations as to how to proceed. When that commission subsequently concluded that there was not any medical basis for banning marijuana and suggested that it be decriminalized, then-President Richard Nixon ignored the recommendation, and the drug remained illegal. Because of the medical capabilities, economic relief, and environmentally safe effect a legalized marijuana society could have, the Federal Government should take the steps to legalize marijuana for the United States. Legalization of marijuana is a way to help society when it is in
“Alcohol Deaths.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 30 June 2014, cdc/features/alcohol-deaths/index.html. “Half-Baked Idea?: Legalizing Marijuana Will Help the Environment.” Scientific American, scientificamerican/article/would-legalizing-pot-be-good-for- environment/. “Marijuana as Medicine.” NIDA, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 28 Apr. 2017, drugabuse/publications/drugfacts/marijuana-medicine. Pantsios, Anastasia. “5 Reasons Legalizing Pot Is Good for the Planet.” EcoWatch, EcoWatch, 27 June 2016, ecowatch/5-reasons-legalizing-pot-is-good- for-the-planet-1882056664. Robaton, Anna. “Where the Jobs Are: America's Pot Industry.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 29 July 2016, cbsnews/news/where-the-jobs-are-americas- marijuana-industry/.
Argument Essay - Grade: A-
Course: Principles of English Composition II (ENGL 1213)
University: University of Oklahoma
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