In today's society, if you're 18, you can buy tobacco and if you're 21, you can buy alcohol, both of which are extremely dangerous and sometimes fatal. Yet, marijuana, which has no documentation of fatalities while under the influence is not legal for anyone in the state of Ohio. My question is why?

Why is it okay that something that causes cancers is totally legal as long as you're of age, but something that can help cancer and other illnesses is frowned upon so badly? Marijuana is known to diminish the signs of epilepsy and increase individuals health such as Multiple Sclerosis, cancer and AIDS, according to medicalmarijuana.org. This drug is helpful for anyone, whether you're 4 years old, or 74 years old, it has health benefits for every age.

Trying to keep marijuana illegal is immature and irrational (in my opinion) because I can almost guarantee that everyone knows someone who smokes marijuana, which means that it's already in our society, and keeping it illegal is not helping anyone. If the legalization of marijuana were to happen, the irresponsibility that comes with smoking it, will fade away. I say this because nowadays, people have to hide whether they have it or not, they have to try to be sneaky. But, if it were legal, people wouldn't have to go to such great lengths to hide it.

I believe that with Issue 3, their proposition is totally reasonable. It allows people to have the plant and to keep it in a contained environment. If Issue 3 were passed, then people ages 21 and over would be able to possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana for recreational use, according to balotpedia.org. Because of this, the amount of arrests would decrease significantly locally and throughout the state. The state of Ohio spends roughly $120 million per year to enforce the prohibition of marijuana, even though it is clearly not working. If it were to be legalized that money would be able to go towards cracking down on the real criminals, and would be able to make our community a better and safer place to live and grow.

Marijuana has zero history of causing death, not just in Ohio, but all throughout the world. While, tobacco is known to be the cause of death for one person out of every five people in America. And alcohol is the cause of death for one person out of every 10 Americans as well. As you can see, marijuana is not the problem here, it is the fact that it has been illegal for an extremely long time with no real reasoning behind the fact. Issue 3 has my vote, what about yours?