Ahhhh Marijuana. We have all heard this argument a million times. If we go on the SIRS website we see that marijuana is the number one topic of discussion in college papers. Making the common claims of how natural it is, the ridiculous amounts of medicinal benefits, its abillity to fix the economy. Pot seems to be some magic bean that cures everything.
“Cancer? Marijuana. AIDS? Marijuana!! Neurological disorder? SMOKE SOME DAMN POT”
Everyone seems to rave about how helpful it is helping cancer patients, AIDS patients, and kids with neurological disorders. Although this doesn’t seem to be the real reason people generally want it to be legal.
“I cant sleep at night”
“I broke my finger when i was seven, the pain is killing me! I NEED WEED!!!
“I need something to bring my appetite back”
Now I am not saying that marijuana doesn’t have medicinal values. It definitely does. I even wrote a paper about the medicinal values. Here’s a paragraph discussing these values if you would care to learn more. My guess however, is that you are well aware of these values from the hundreds of papers that have been submitted discussing them. “It is widely accepted by many doctors and physicians that marijuana does in fact have medicinal benefits. In an article written in the Journal of Drug Issues, medicinal values were highlighted. Benefits include; Reducing nausea and vomiting from cancer patients currently undergoing chemo therapy, aiding anorexia from AIDS patients, reducing spasticity in people with multiple sclerosis, and reducing seizures in people with neurological disorders (Rudski). According to a survey of a thousand randomly selected registered voters 85% of United States agree that marijuana should be legal for medicinal use with the approval of a physician (Rollins). Examples of these medical benefits have been experienced all over the United States. One of the most popular examples was documented in the 2013 documentary “weed”. This documentary by Sanjay Gupta discusses the case of a girl named Charollette Figi, who has a very damaging form of epilepsy. This family tried everything from drugs such as valium, to altered diets. One drug even caused her heart to stop. She was having hundreds of seizures a week. Marijuana usage for children of course, is highly controversial. Simply put, getting a child stoned is highly immoral. However, with charlottes case, growers have designed a new strain of marijuana, in honor of her case called “Charlottes web”. Marijuana has two main ingredients, CBD and THC. THC is the psychoactive ingredient that causes the “high”. CBD is the chemical in marijuana believed to cause the medical benefits. This new strain is primarily CBD and very little THC. With this strain the medicinal benefits can be taken advantage of without a controversial psychoactive effect. When the parents finally gave their daughter the marijuana, they of course didn’t have her smoke, they put a concentrate under her tongue. Immediately following the usage, she went from 300 seizures a week, to not having a single seizure for 3 days. This dramatic decrease is astonishing proof that marijuana does in fact have medicinal benefits (Gupta).”
Rollins, Judy A,PhD., R.N. “Pot for Tots: Children and Medical Marijuana.” Pediatric nursing 40.2 (2014): 59-60. ProQuest.Web. 16 July 2014.
Rudski, Jeffrey M. “Treatment Acceptability, Stigma, and Legal Concerns of Medical Marijuana are Affected by Method of Administration.” Journal of Drug Issues 44.3 (2014): 308-20. ProQuest. Web. 21 July 2014.
Still not convinced? Here is a documentary that was done in 2013 by Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who was heavily against marijuana from what he always heard. After doing independent studies of marijuana, he immediately changed his mind and publicly apologized for his irrational opinion.
Its very true that pot can help a lot. Its no doubt a very beneficial alternative to many medications that have much more harmful side effects then the munchies and a insatiable urge to take a nap. As a fellow college kid who has written this paper, I can promise you most people just want to get high, the problem is that “I wanna smoke” doesn’t make for a very convincing argument. Which is why it generally show up in papers. I’m calling it right now though. It is a little ridiculous for pot to be illegal. Lets be honest, cigarettes and alcohol are much, much worse. In fact they are some of the largest killers in the United States. I know people often criticize this argument, saying that “one bad thing being legal doesn’t justify making another thing legal” but if you can do your unhealthy vices, then why cant I do mine??
I’m not even trying to say that Cigarettes or alcohol should be illegal, they are so ingrained into our society that it will never be illegal. All I am asking for is equal rights. If you can smoke your cigarettes or drink your booze, why cant I smoke my weed? Not to mention, EVERYONE DOES IT. Sometimes I forget its illegal. Hell, 2 states even let people smoke all they want. Celebrities base their entire career off of their stoner persona, or at least admit to smoking. Need examples?
You get the point. These people openly admit to smoking weed, along with many others. Even our president has openly admitted to smoking when he was younger.
What about the kids?? What about them?? Do you think making weed illegal stops children from smoking? Absolutely not? Drug dealers don’t check I.D.’s, they’ll sell to pretty much anyone. I started smoking weed when I was 13, and let me tell you, I had absolutely no problem finding it. Weed was much easier to acquire than cigarettes or booze. Since you absolutely have to be 21 to get Alcohol, it was impossible for me to get it, unless I could find a 21 year old willing to take the risk to get a teenager drunk, which is not as common as one might think. By the time i was a senior in high school however, a majority of my grade was smoking. Weed being illegal does not keep it away from children.
Is getting high really a crime worth punishment? It makes no sense to incarcerate someone for smoking a plant. They aren’t hurting anyone besides them selves. When i was in high school I got caught smoking before school and I was arrested and had to go to court. When I was read my punishment for smoking one of the things they told me is I could no longer receive federal aid for college. I immediately lost my shit. My family has no college savings for me, and with the rates of tuition, paying out of pocket is pretty much impossible. So what we are doing is ruining someones life because they are doing something we perceive as poisonous to their life, how is this productive? 
Why the F*%k is this S$#t still illegal??
So honestly. Why the hell is weed still illegal? If people are arguing its medicinal benefits, if no one has ever over dosed from it, if people enjoy getting high, if we can tax the shit out of it, then why the hell is it illegal???
Lobbying
“Nah, you are just being superstitious, it couldnt possibly be lobbying you paranoid hippy.” Oh but it is, and I will prove it. Who is primarily against marijuana use, even for medical purposes, in the political world?
This Guy. Mitch McConnell Republican Senate member from Kentucky
In a letter Written by McConnell to a constituent of his, responding to his proposal to legalize marijuana for medical use, McConnell made claims that marijuana is far too dangerous to legalize, and could even lead to death. Why is this guy so adamant about marijuana not being legal? LOBBYING!!!! There is a website called opensecrets.org that exploits all funding to politicians, and where this funding comes from. You’ll never guess who is the top recipient of funding from pharmaceutical companies…
Hmmm…. i wonder if that $256,100 in campaign funding has any sort of influence on his decision….
and in case you think I just pasted a picture of “Top 20 most awesome candidates,” here is a link to the actual page. Look weed is awesome. It may have its down sides; the fact that its so expensive, the damage to the lungs and heart, potential for abuse and addiction, or a lack of motivation, but this is nothing we haven’t seen in other, legal substances 
Just shut the hippies up already and let it be legal!!!
mwelch94 
