smokin

Chances are everybody in this room has been offered or exposed to marijuana to some degree. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse over 40% of 12th graders have smoked marijuana at least once. Most teens don't fully understand the effects of marijuana or they only know what they learned from the DARE program in elementary and middle school. I am here to tell you the half of the story the government must have forgotten.

The government made 872,721 arrests in 2007 alone and 89% of those were only possesion charges. There are currently about two million incarcerated inmates in the United States. Often times we allow murderers and rapists out early in order to make room for nonviolent marijuana offenders. An arrest takes 3-4 hours, which is time policemen could be spending looking for drunk drivers and violent criminals. in order to enforce marijuana prohibition it costs the government ten to twelve billion dollars annually and yeilds little success. Marijuana is readily available to a majority of Americans and for some teens it is easier to access than tobacco and alcohol. Just imagine, if marijuana was made legal, the government would save billions of dollars, create jobs, and make billions from taxing the herb. This money could be put into lowering healthcare costs and building a better educational system.

A survey done by TIME magazine and CNN showed the number of Americans supporting the legalization of marijuana has doubled from 1988 to 2002. this shows that Americans are finally starting to understand the reality about marijuana, there is a relatively low amount of concequences in using the herb compared to what the user faces in the law enforcement community. On August 2, 1977 President Jimmy Carter wrote a letter to congress acknowledging that "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this clearer than in the laws against the possesion of marijuana for personal use." In the last thousand years, there have been no deaths from marijuana overdoses. compare this to the 435,000 deaths from tobacco and the 85,00 deaths from alcohol in the year 2000 alone.

What about what your 5th grade DARE teacher told you about Marijuana being the "gateway drug"? This is nothing more than scare tactics on the government's part, not scientific data. In reality there is no scientific basis for the connection between the psychoactive effects of marijuana and the progression to the use of harder drugs. According to The World Health Organization, "exposure to other drugs when purchasing cannabis on the black market, increases the opportunity to use illict drugs." So what would happen if America legalized marijuana? marijuana would be separated from the market of harder drugs, eliminating the so called gateway effect.

There are many medical myths that have been created in order to keep smoking illegal. Some claim that marijuana is highly addictive, kills brain cells causing permanent mental illness, and that marijuana is worse for the lungs than tobacco. First off, most people smoke marijuana occasionally. Less than 1% of Americans smoke pot on a daily basis and a manority of that percent develop a psychological dependence on marijuana. No physical addictions can result from using marijuana, unlike cigaretts which contain nicotine. Secondly there have been no convincing research studies linking the loss of brain cells as a result of smoking marijuana. While intoxicated a user may become overly paranoid or anxious, but these symptoms stop once the body works the THC out of its system. Moderate smoking of marijuana causes minimal damage to the lungs compared to cigarettes. Both tobacco and marijuana contain carcinogens which aggravate the throat and lungs but there have been no reports of lung cancer being related solely to marijuana. Unlike heavy tobacco smokers, heavy marijuana smokers show no obstruction of the lung's small airways. That indicates that people will not develop emphysema from smoking marijuana.

Many of you have heard that smoking pot will cause you to be lazy. For the past 25 years researchers have tried and failed to connect amotivational syndrome with smoking marijuana. When people are intoxicated regardless of what the drug is become lazy. Singling out marijuana wouldn't be right.

Regardless of if you smoke or not you cannot deny that this is an important issue. Legalization would free up police time, boost the economy, and return freedom to thousands of adults. Marijuana is not a gateway drug, has no physical addiction, and is not as harmful to the body as alcohol and tobacco. It is already widely used by Americans and the government is unsuccessful in its fight against marijuana. Marijuan is a mind impairing substance, therefor it would be illegal to drive while under the influence. Remember, legalization is another word for regulation.

Documentary
Super High Me (movie)

1 non-pring source
www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/inded.php?pid=7908
this was a letter from President Jimmy Carter to congress

internet sources
drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/30
www.abovetheignorance.org
www.norml.org
www.nida.nih.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html
www.marijuana.com/legalization-decriminalization/10546-my-persuasive-speech-takes-place-tomorrow-read.html