Remember back in elementary and middle school when the organization, D.A.R.E., would either schedule assemblies and even constitute programs into the school? Remember being told in lectures the dangers of marijuana, and possibly being shown videos of how often you'd expect random strangers to just offer the plant to you? Yes, those scare tactics were somewhat effective, but overall, they were based off of ideals that are not backed up by facts or research. Let us move forward to today; marijuana has been legalized for both medicinal purposes and recreational usage through not only various states in the U.S., but also in a couple of countries overseas.
Over time, our thoughts on this plant, yes, plant, because it grew in the wild in the past, and still to this day, have radically changed due to rational thinking and scientific studies. Though, the problem is, marijuana is considered a dangerous drug by the United States government. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency's website, drugs fall into different categories, or schedules, which is determined by a couple different factors, such as addictiveness, lethality, and medicinal acceptance. There are five schedule categories with schedule one drugs listed as being the most dangerous and schedule five being the least. Currently, marijuana is classified as a schedule one drug, which is defined as having "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." However, drugs such as cocaine and methamphetamine are schedule two drugs, which are considered to be dangerous, but also possible having a purpose in medicine. To me, that is completely outrageous. Since the beginning of recorded history, there has yet to be (and I doubt there ever will be) cases where people have overdosed on marijuana, or for that matter, have even died as a result of using it. Not only that, marijuana has numerous medicinal uses and is found to be non-addictive. Yet, there have been plenty of people who have overdosed and died using cocaine and meth, and from what I understand, these substance are extremely addictive.
From personal experience, I can tell you marijuana is something that people should not fear or hate. A few years ago, a friend of mine had to have a spinal fusion because of a bulging disk. The surgery was botched; in other words, a nerve had been cut that wasn't supposed to be due to the hospital rushing the surgeon, and since then has had to live every day with unimaginable pain that couldn't be taken away by any medication or pain killer, or so we thought. One day, he was desperate and tried marijuana, and just a couple of puffs took away the pain for a whole week. It was a miracle. He had gained back at least four or five years of lost happiness and was able to be more active, no longer being restricted by the pain. And no, he's not an addict and he's not a loser (which is the unfortunate opinions that close-minded people have of this subject). He is a successful professional, an extremely intelligent being, and he is far from the classification of a loser.
This plant has amazing healing properties, but aside from that, full decriminalization of it would allow the United States, even the world, to prosper economically. Let us look at one fantastic example: the legalization of both medicinal and recreational marijuana use in the state of Colorado. Since legislation was passed, the dollar amount in taxes brought in by marijuana sales was in the millions. This basically increased the economy of the state, and allowed more money to be put into a wide range of areas that needed funding. If we to do the same thing through the entire country, we could benefit off of those funds and be able to sustain important programs, like social security, infrastructure, and education.
The fact of the matter is, marijuana is not the dangerous thing that kills you the first time you smoke or ingest it. It is not a substance that should have the same danger classification as heroin. It is a plant that has amazing properties that are beneficial to human health, and is potentially an intelligent investment to be considered. That is why we must take a stand and work on decriminalizing marijuana, not only for the sake of those who depend on it's medicinal properties, but also for the sake of the rest of us, the general public, who will be able to prosper from its earnings.
