The issue of the legalization of marijuana has become more and more of a controversial topic in American politics over the past thirty years and even more so in the past five. Due to the statewide 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 ailments like cancer, crohn's disease, seizures, ulcerative colitis, and many other problems. It also is a solution for social disorders like depression and anxiety. 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, and she has now been declared cancer free even with the decision to forego chemotherapy for medical marijuana. 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 factor prohibiting the legalization is the funding of many industries like the alcohol, tobacco, 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 who have committed crimes that have hurt themselves or the people around them, not a place for people who have a small amount of marijuana on them.


The first source is from Drug Policy Alliance, which is a biased group that favors the legalization of marijuana, as seen through its way of only presenting the ideas in favor and wording the negative consequences so they have less of an influence. This article is a good secondary source because it outlines how Colorado, the first state to legalize recreational marijuana, has benefitted from marijuana's legalization. It states how crime rate has decreased, state revenue has increase dramatically, traffic fatalities have decrease, and job numbers in Colorado have increased. This author does not have anything at risk or at stake with writing this except for the fact that it may be able to skew the national opinion in favor of legalization. If anything, this article would not turn people away from the support of legalization, it will either make them agree with it or stay neutral because it does not present any information against the legalization. 

The second source is from a Gallup poll that states the support in America for the legalization. The article is from October 2013, which was the first time over fifty percent of Americans had been in support of the legalization rather than in support of the prohibition. It states how the younger American demographic is now able to vote and was able to push the national opinion to over 56% in favor of legalization. The author, the Gallup polling, does not have anything at stake for this article. They are simply just taking the opinions of the American people. Generally, other articles with something at stake will pull from these polls in order to prove a point, however. Lastly, this article does not have a bias. It is simply an article outline the people both in favor and not and their demographics. The rest of the article just summarizes how they got their statistics, which is from a national poll with an even spread of ages, political opinions and incomes. 

The last source is a post from the National Young Leaders Blog, which is already seen as a rather biased source just from the nature of a blog being so opinionated. However, this article shows both the pros and cons of the legalization in America and presents a rather non biased argument for both sides. It speaks about the pros in regards to economic benefit, legal rights of personal freedom, more open jails and many other points that the other articles addressed. This article also presents the counterarguments of its addictive nature, under the influence driving, children having access to it and lung health. Overall, both arguments are equally supported, showing no bias. The author also has nothing at stake. The only thing at stake is the opinions of the readers. This article has the potential to shift a reader who is for legalization to reconsider and be in favor or prohibition and vise versa. 

I chose to research this topic because of its relevance in American politics today, especially now that it is time for the presidential election. 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 and after researching it, that view has not shifted. Also after researching this topic, however, I feel like I should focus on the use of medical marijuana instead of both medical and recreational because there is far more of a benefit to American society if that is legalized, recreational is considered a second decision. Overall, this topic should be interesting and present both great evidence and difficult opposing views that must be proven in correct. 
