The U.S federal government should legalize marijuana because of its medical benefits, its economic benefits, and its societal benefits. Many patients and doctors alike feel that when it comes to the treatment of a disease people should have access to the most effective treatment possible and in many cases the most effective treatment is marijuana. This idea has been held back for so long because the public has been misinformed about marijuana for years. The government and mainstream media has painted weed as one of the most harmful drugs that plagues America. The stigma behind pot smokers is that they are all lazy and can't do anything but sit around and eat junk food all day. My goal is to shed light on this plant and show its benefits with facts rather than continue to let the opposition of marijuana tell the story. On the other hand there are many unknowns involved with marijuana including important facts such as how it affects the mind, especially the minds of children and young adults whose brains are still going through important developmental stages both physically and psychologically. I will analyze the different benefits of marijuana and tell the whole story of its power.

Marijuana is very commonly used to treat pain especially of those on chemotherapy. Cancer kills hundreds of thousands of Americans each year and many of them suffer from the pain of chemotherapy and radiation in tandem with the other side effects of cancer. Many of these patients do not have access to medical marijuana to ease their suffering. Pain is not the only thing that marijuana helps. Cannabis can help people regain an appetite, which is often lost when people are sick especially with cancer.  Some people even believe that marijuana is able to cure cancer. In the first episode of Weediquette, a documentary style news program published by Vice News, followed a 17 year old girl named Olivia. She was diagnosed with leukemia and after multiple chemotherapy treatments and no success she switched to a strictly cannabis based treatment and is now in remission. Although, this is a single example it is an impressive one no doubt, and if marijuana were legalized more people would have access to this potential treatment for cancer and at the very least have access to it for pain. Studies even show "CBD may help prevent cancer from spreading, researchers at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco reported in 2007." (Welsh and Loria) This could be why Olivia's cancer went into remission but more testing is necessary before this can be validated, but testing is very hard to get cleared because marijuana is a Schedule 1 substance. If it were legal however, marijuana's effect on cancer could be thoroughly studied. In addition hospitals could administer marijuana to patients in pain in their hospitals. This is currently allowed in Israel where medical marijuana is both legal and used in hospitals and nursing homes. Residents in nursing homes are using marijuana to treat pain, loss of appetite, Parkinson's disease, and dementia. (Gupta, Weed - CNN Special Documentary) One man who was in the holocaust smokes because it stops his pain and hand tremors caused by a stroke, but he also says that it frees him from the nightmares of his childhood hiding from Nazis. Scientists at Tel Aviv University are studying this man and nineteen other patients' progress. "The results are outstanding including weight gain, improved mood, pain, and tremor reduction." (Gupta, Weed - CNN Special Documentary) This shows how effective marijuana can be and not just for pain.

Physical pain is not the only type of suffering that can be relieved from marijuana. Some veterans struggling with PTSD have begun to use marijuana to combat their illness instead of the controversial antidepressants fed to them by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks of the dangers of prescriptions "Most frightening to me is that someone dies in the United States every 19 minutes from a prescription drug overdose, mostly accidental. Every 19 minutes. It is a horrifying statistic. As much as I searched, I could not find a documented case of death from marijuana overdose." (Gupta) Sadly even if the V.A. did want to prescribe patients medical marijuana it would not be allowed because it is still federally illegal. Veterans are also forbidden from using marijuana because they will lose all of their benefits from the V.A. This fear keeps many from seeking treatment in marijuana even though it could be the best possible option for them to use. Other people have a different fear of not knowing what to try next to save their loved ones. Parents with severely epileptic children are making the difficult decision to try marijuana as a treatment option for their children.

Epilepsy affects many people in the U.S. today and many of these people are young children. With conventional medications not working some parents have turned to marijuana for their child's treatment. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the CNN medical correspondent, has changed his mind on weed. He said, "It doesn't have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications. In fact, sometimes marijuana is the only thing that works." (Gupta) He said this after completing a documentary called Weed in which he traveled around and learned the truth about marijuana. Dr. Gupta met a child named Charlotte who suffered from 300 seizures per week, but when she began treatment with medical marijuana her seizures dropped to about 2 or 3 each month. That is an enormous drop off especially when each seizure had the potential to end her life. This idea is impossible for some people to imagine. Thankfully it's a reality. Medical marijuana saved this young girls life. Such unreal success can be attributed to the two important compounds in marijuana, which are THC and CBD. Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the psychoactive compound in weed that gives the characteristic high to users and is used less in treatments especially those for children. However, THC may slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease "The 2006 study, published in the journal Molecular Pharmaceutics, found that THC, the active chemical in marijuana, slows the formation of amyloid plaques by blocking the enzyme in the brain that makes them. These plaques are what kill brain cells and cause Alzheimer's." (Welsh and Loria) Cannabidiol (CBD) on the other hand is often responsible for helping patients like Charlotte. In the book Cannabis Extracts in Medicine: The Promise of Benefits in Seizure Disorders, Cancer and Other Conditions author Jeffrey Dach states, "A small study conducted by Paul Consroe in which CBD was tested as a treatment for intractable epilepsy. In this study, patients stayed on the anticonvulsant medications they had been on (which failed to eliminate their seizures) and added 200 mg/day of CBD or a placebo. Of the seven patients getting CBD over the course of several months, only one showed no improvement. Three subjects became seizure-free" (Dach) this is proof of CBD's effectiveness to fight seizures. New strains are being developed for seizure patients to have high CBD and low THC contents. In addition these children are not smoking the marijuana they are taking extracts under their tongue. Some people think that these kids that are on marijuana as a treatment are getting stoned, and that is simply not the case. In fact with such low levels of THC in the extracts it's almost pure CBD. Marijuana's extreme versatility is unlike any other drug. It can be grown and shaped to suit the needs of people with different problems this aspect of the plant is often overlooked when discussing legality. Just because marijuana is used it doesn't mean that people are getting high. Marijuana doesn't only change the medical industry if legalized. The health benefits seem almost endless, as marijuana is being studied and found to treat countless ailments. Weed can be used to treat glaucoma according to the National Eye Institute "Studies in the early 1970s showed that marijuana, when smoked, lowered intraocular pressure (IOP) in people with normal pressure and those with glaucoma." (Welsh & Loria) It will change the economy as well.

The economy is always changing whether it's expanding or collapsing but one thing is for sure adding marijuana to the shopping list will certainly stimulate the economy. This fact has been seen first hand in the states where weed is already legal. Colorado for example has seen huge growth from the legal weed industry. They sold $996,184,788 worth of recreational and medical cannabis in 2015 (Baca), and $135 million of that total was collected in taxes by the government. 35 million of which is headed toward school funding. (Baca) These impressive figures would grow astronomically if marijuana was legal throughout the U.S. Billions of dollars would be generated in taxes and in revenue. Legalization would also create many new jobs for people in need. As more dispensaries continue to open up in Colorado it is likely that total marijuana sales will likely be higher than 1 billion dollars in 2016. Building arguments against marijuana saying that it is not that big of an economic booster is impossible now that these large figures are out. Opponents think claimed that taxes collected on marijuana sales would be meager "Despite claims to the contrary, the social costs of legalizing marijuana will dwarf the meager taxes raised." (Stimson) Clearly Stimson had a poor prediction as $135 million dollars is not a small about of money, and there have yet to be "social costs" of legal cannabis. Marijuana is much safer than both tobacco and alcohol the "social costs" are not applicable to marijuana. People won't be hospitalized for smoking too much likewise driving drunk is much more dangerous than driving high. According to a study by the National Traffic and Safety Administration "people who have smoked just a third of a joint will say they are impaired, even when driving tests show no such effects ...  'They'll drive slower, they'll follow cars at greater distances, they'll take some actions that at least somewhat offset the fact that they're impaired,' Hansen said." (Ghose) Driving isn't the only difference every year people die due to overdoses on alcohol. On the other hand, a person has never died due to a marijuana overdose because it is simply impossible to do so. According to the CDC "Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths and 2.5 million years of potential life lost (YPLL) each year in the United States from 2006  --  2010, shortening the lives of those who died by an average of 30 years." (CDC) 

Yet Stimson implies "Marijuana is not at all like alcohol. Consumption of alcohol carries few health risks and even offers some significant benefits." (Stimson) This quote is actually laughable because it claims that alcohol carries few health risks and offers significant benefits. Even though marijuana helps kids with seizures and veterans with PTSD while alcohol kills thousands somehow alcohol is the substance with health benefits. People who continue to by into the idea that marijuana is this dangerous substance are the one's that continually listen to this fear mongering by those that oppose its legalization. In general people against marijuana have either not done any research into the topic or don't want to believe the research that has been done. 

Society as a whole would be better off with legalization. In places like Louisiana blacks are targeted by law enforcement because they are high probability offenders. This can be seen clearly in the case of Bernard Noble. He is a 48-year-old black man that was arrested for 2 marijuana joints after being stopped by police for no reason. He was sentenced to 13.3 years in prison because of Louisiana's 3-strike policy. Noble had 2 prior non-violent possession charges this third strike is what led to an elongated and egregious prison charge. Unfortunately, this is not the only case of a person getting a prison sentence much harsher than what he or she deserved. This is a common trend in Louisiana because of their harsh laws especially for non-violent drug offenses, and for possessing a substance that is less dangerous than both tobacco and alcohol it really makes no sense as to why a person could be put in jail for this extended period of time. In contrast to how the government has reacted in Louisiana it turns out that violent crime in Denver, Colorado has dropped since marijuana became legal according to "Part 1 Crime in the City and County of Denver Based on UCR Standards" (Rough) Less violent crime in Denver may only be a coincidence but it is still a statistic none the less. Despite this there were "658,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2012 alone, and the majority of these arrests were for non-violent, low-level offenders. Enforcing cannabis possession laws costs the U.S. approximately $3.6 billion annually. All of this time, cost, and effort takes our law enforcement away from enforcing more urgent issues." (Rough) It seems as though if marijuana were legal then the many aspects of life would be greatly improved.

Marijuana legalization would benefit so many people. Those who suffer from illness ranging from cancer to PTSD would benefit greatly from the end of prohibition. Cancer patients could use marijuana to treat their pain and possibly treat their cancer as well. They could also use it to treat their nausea and loss of appetite, which are side effects of chemotherapy. The veterans of America suffering from PTSD could treat themselves without becoming dependent and addicted to the powerful anti-depressants the V.A. gives them. The crisis, which has veterans killing themselves every day, could stop. Parents with kids suffering from rare forms of epilepsy can medicate their children with CBD to stop their seizures and save their lives. Although all of this is possible now it is only in a few states, and even places where medical marijuana is legal it is difficult to get. In Maryland for example medical marijuana has been legalized, but not a single dispensary has opened because of the lack of effort to implement by the state government. In Washington D.C. recreational marijuana is legal yet there are no public dispensaries. The government is trying to hold back the process as much as it can even though the people are voting marijuana in. Jobs could be created, and unemployment could lower despite what many people want getting the marijuana businesses up and running is very difficult. The government is even making it difficult for scientists to study marijuana and its positives because it is still a Schedule 1 substance even though a person has never died of a marijuana overdose. Unlike almost another drug out there, people don't die from marijuana overdose. For what ailments it can aid with it is much safer than its prescription counterparts. Americans have been lied to since 1970 when marijuana was labeled a Schedule 1 drug. It is time for the people to understand marijuana is not the evil plant that destroys everything like the fear mongering government has made it out to be. Marijuana should be legal so that adults aged 21 and over have the choice to buy a substance that is safer than tobacco and alcohol. Marijuana truly does benefit medicine, economics, and society.

