 What scares you about Marijuana use? Is it the stereotypical spaced out view you have seen in movies or a television show such as That 70s show? Or, maybe it's your own retrospect from your belligerent college years? But with that aside, today the United States of America leads the world in marijuana reform (Marijuana Legalization and Regulation). We as Americans, have pushed the boundaries to find the best possible benefits for such a universal drug. The legalization of recreation and medical use of Marijuana will benefit health care issues, mend economic problems, and end societal problems in the United States.

Marijuana or Cannabis can be tracked back to Ancient Chinese emperors such as Shen Nung who lived in 2727 B.C. (Cannabis, Coca.). It then spread to the ends of the earth to treat anxiety, pain, and stress. The relationship between human being and cannabis is one of the longest known to man. This relationship with the first cultivated plant, was ultimately shamed starting in the 1930s during the prohibition stages (Walsh).  During this time, the term Marijuana was coined to scare Americans away from the plant and for a long time, it did. It was not until the late 1990s that the marijuana reform started to be pushed and in the first decade of the twenty first century the  states started to legalized the medical and recreation use of Marijuana (Marijuana). Marijuana was used by our ancestors as medicine for many different problems and and until the past 76 years we've discontinued that use because the government has told us that it was bad for us. In the 1960s the government showed propaganda videos in classrooms of marijuana with a bias against its use and because of that, many American have been misinformed of the potential this plant could be containing. 

First, the legalization of cannabis would have an extraordinary effect in the field of medicine. In the TED talk entitled, "Why I Changed My Mind About Medical Cannabis," by Hugh Hempel just a small portion of the benefits of cannabis are shown. Hempel, a veteran in the technology industry, happens to be the father of two twin girls who are suffering from a rare genetic disease which can be compared to childhood Alzheimer's disease. The story the two eleven year olds is a touching one. The girls spent most of their young lives "doped up" on many narcotics to suppress the seizures they had been suffering from for years. After many years of heart ache, Hempel and this wife decided to take a leap of faith into the unknown and uncharted territory of Cannabis treatment. This leap of faith, ultimately, uncrippled the lives of their twin daughters. They began to say words and start speaking sentences within a short time period. The Cannabis treatment included THC, the hallucinogenic chemical in the marijuana plant. The drug completely took the place of the many pharmaceutical drugs the girls had been receiving without the harmful side effects. The girls now have some what of a normal life and their seizures have recanted dramatically. On the day of Hugh Hempel's TED talk, his daughters turned eleven, which is an age that the doctors at their birth thought the girls would never see (Hempel).

Medical and recreational marijuana will benefit the nation; despite what many believe. The affects of the medical side of the drug show that it decreases pain, nausea, inflammation, and is used to treat muscle control problems such as ALS (Is Marijuana Medicine?). New studies on animals, show that THC, Delta-9-tetrehydrocannabinol, the main hallucinogenic in marijuana have aided in shrinking the size of cancer cells and have even killed certain cancer cells. Smoking of the whole marijuana plant, not just ingesting the oil it's self, has been found to delay the growth of cancer cells in a couple of particular brain tumor (Is Marijuana Medicine?). I also have personal experience with the drug, my mother who has a melanoma in the cornea of her eye, has been treated with radiation along with a medical prescription for cannabis oil (which enclosed in a capsule taken every two day).  The Radiation was a very invasive procedure which required her to be in the hospital for a seven-day period with two surgeries to implant and remove pellets which were radioactive. This whole scenario did very little to shrink the size of the tumor. She then started to take the pills containing cannabis oil which has done more in the long run to reduce the size of the tumor and slows its overall growth. This medication has now allowed the tumor to get down to a size where it can be completely surgical removed without any permanent damage to her eye. Overall, my family is very happy with the affects of cannabis with my mom's case. In seeing this process, I know that it could help many people if society is willing to put down the perception in which they have of marijuana.  

Today, states are rapidly broadening their horizons to not only the health benefits of the drug but also the economical and societal benefits of marijuana.  The first states to legalize the recreational use of marijuana was Washington and Colorado in 2012. Another two years went by until the next two states, Alaska and Oregon, legalized the use of marijuana (Marijuana). Now, what are these citizens seeing that the rest of the nation and the world itself is not? In a statistic published by the America's anguish, we see that there was an 18 percent increase the acceptance of marijuana between the years 1969 and 2001 (attitudes toward legalization of the use of marijuana). This is before the legalization of the drug in any state, the acceptance and acknowledgement of the profit of the pharmaceutic. Fifty-three percent of Americans preferred to legalized marijuana (marijuana). With Colorado, as an outstanding precedent to the benefits to society and economy, we have seen an increase in jobs, a decrease in the drug related arrest for African Americans, and a decrease in crime rate in the state (Marijuana Legalization and regulation).    

Secondly, not only would the legalization of marijuana be beneficial to the medical field but also our economy.  Today, millions of dollars are spent trying to fight marijuana within our country. The legalization of marijuana would save our nation money that is now spent on police force for arresting and prosecuting marijuana users and producers. Through legalization, we could sell marijuana in stores, much like the dispensaries in Colorado, which the state would tax as they do for alcohol and tobacco now. "Marijuana legalization would also generate tax revenue of approximately $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods, and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco" (Miron).  Opening up stores that sold cannabis products would also create many jobs for farmers and those would operate the stores also aiding our economy. 

Socially, many Americans believe that the legalization of marijuana will cause consumption to sky rocket. For that I use the example of the prohibition of alcohol. Many studies show that the prohibition of alcohol did not slow the consumption of the product, instead speakeasies were branded and an underground market for alcohol was started. This idea is similar to the idea of marijuana. The number of people who used cannabis products did not likely dissipate following the prohibition of marijuana in the 1930s. Thus, an underground market for marijuana blossomed. The legalization would likely not affect the number of Americans cannabis users, instead the currently users will able to be public about their use. 

Lastly, Others may think that this mild hallucinogenic drug will make people do things that they might not normally do and this will overall effect the well being of our society. I once had a teacher that said that she did not want to be on the roads with those who were under the influence of marijuana. After further investigation, I realized that being "high" did not effect the amount of fatal car collisions in the states where marijuana is legal. In a press release conducted one year after the legalization of marijuana in the state of Washington, we as Americans found out that there was actually fewer fatal car crashed following the legalization of marijuana (Marijuana Legalization in Washington State).  The number of violent crimes decreased in the state that year. Finally, "suicide rates among men aged 20 through 39 fell between 9% and 11% after medical marijuana legalization compared with those in states that did not legalize" (Suicide Rates). So ultimately, marijuana did not affect society in a negative way but yet make the states where marijuana is legal seems to be a better place to live.  

Marijuana has been scared off by the government and hasn't been in the picture for quit some time now. One of our most famous presidents said this, "prohibition ... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes ...  A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded  -- Abraham Lincoln" (Hempel). In conclusion, if society starts to think of marijuana as a tool to better our society, health care system, and economy then we will start to develop into a better version of the United States. 

