Marijuana: Its Time for Legalization

C. Montes

Marijuana: its time to be Legalized and Regulated

As marijuana is becoming more accepted in American society it is inevitable that society will back the legalization of this natural recreational drug.   In recent years celebrities, doctors, medical experts, and many others have voiced their opinion that at the very least medical marijuana should be legalized and regulated.   Having been to Amsterdam and seeing a society legalize and responsibly use cannabis in a safe and intelligent manner, I believe that it is the time and beneficial for America to adopt the ideas that have worked so well in Amsterdam.   There are more benefits that can come from the legalization of Marijuana than there is at its current status.   These include cost benefits, health benefits, and settling the moral debate on marijuana.
There are debates on whether Marijuana should be legal or illegal and which path to legalization it should take.   These days the arguments for the legalization of marijuana are largely backed up and have more reasonable reasons than the arguments for keeping it illegal.   One hurdle that can be argued in favor of keeping illegal is moral view that because the government views marijuana an illegal drug it is therefore immoral to use marijuana.   I think it is unfair to classify marijuana a drug in the same category with others such as cocaine, or other methamphetamines that are far more addictive and damaging.   There are already substances that are legalized that have a far more damaging effect than marijuana such as alcohol and nicotine.   Therefore the moral argument in favor of the legal use of alcohol, which is related to an immense amount of fatalities per year, and nicotine, which leads to cancer and thousands of deaths per year, is unfair to keeping marijuana illegal.   Marijuana has not been proven to be either as addictive as nicotine, nor connected to nearly as many fatalities as alcohol use.
Another area of debate, which is merely speculation,...