The issue of the legalization of marijuana has become more and more of a controversial topic in America politics over the past thirty years and even more so in the past five. With the state wide legalization in multiple states for medical use and then for recreational use in a few others, there is a large push by over fifty percent of the American population to get medicinal and recreational use legalized in America. This topic is not going to go away anytime soon and it has become a large part of most presidential candidate's platforms and is discussed at most debates. 

The medical benefit of this would revolutionize the medical industry, and has made efforts towards curing things like cancer, chon's disease, seizures, ulcerative colitis, and many other diseases, disorders and ailments that don't have cures. Personally speaking, I have watched a family friend, who had stage three cancer, use the benefits of medical marijuana to help her treatment through stage 3 liver cancer. This is one of the many benefits that marijuana has from the medical standpoint, and with growing research, the medical industry will be able to find many more. 

The biggest thing prohibiting the legalization is the funding of many industries like the alcohol, pharmaceutical, police union and private jailing industries to stop the marijuana industry from taking profit away from them. Alcohol industries are afraid of recreational marijuana taking the money from them because people will see marijuana as a newly found pastime instead of consuming alcohol. Pharmaceutical industries do not want the legalization because of the alternative medical benefits of marijuana that would render many drugs on the market that are irrationally prices useless. Lastly, with the criminalization of marijuana, people are being jailed for minor possession charges and have to pay the private prisons companies to get out. With the legalization of marijuana, jails will be a place for real criminals, not a place for people who have a dime bag of marijuana on them.

The first source is from Pew Research Center, and it talks about the main reasons both for and against the legalization. It outlines the Gallop poll of American preference towards legalization over the past 30 years. Along with that it outlines many other opinions of the American people.

The second source is from Drug WarRant. Granted, it is not a very credible source due to its bias, it still presents important information. The whole article is on the history of hemp and marijuana in America, and it traces the politics behind the criminalization and prohibition of marijuana, despite its stated benefits.

The last article is from Sun Times, which is a credible source is an outline of the industries that are no in support of legalization. It gives a source and a reason for all five industries behind the funding of criminalizaion.

I chose to research this topic because of it's relevance in American politics today, especially now that it is time for the presidential election running. It's definitely controversial, and has many different thoughts both in support of it and not. I stand behind it because of the medical benefits, economic benefits, and the corruptness behind the ban. After researching this topic, however, I feel like I should focus on the use of medical marijuana instead of both medical and recreational. Overall, this topic should be interesting and present both great evidence and difficult opposing views that must be proven in correct. 
