Did you know that the recent legalization of marijuana in Washington State and Colorado will greatly help their state. 50% of revenue from the government’s sale of marijuana would go to Washington’s basic health plan and 15% would go to Washington’s substance abuse prevention programs. That could help our country quite a bit if marijuana was sold by the government nationwide. Not only would our country make money we would save a lot of money too. Our country spends millions of dollars on arrests for drug possession.
I have been researching the topic of marijuana for our 8th grade culminating project. Some key things I’ve learned about it are that marijuana can be helpful and harmful at the same time. Marijuana can help treat symptoms that accompany cancer and AIDS such as nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite. Marijuana can also have some negative effects on the body. Among males marijuana use can reduce the production of testosterone and among females marijuana can cause menstrual irregularity and reduced fertility.
It’s really incredible how many uses marijuana has had throughout history. The Romans and Vikings used hemp to make rope for their ships. Marijuana has been used to treat soreness in China and Egypt. Even paper was made by hemp as far back as 500 BC. It was even used in medicine by many different cultures throughout history.
One other impactful aspect of the topic I explored described how the legalization of marijuana would help get rid of the drug cartels. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said the legalization of marijuana in the US could enervate Mexico’s drug cartels. This meant that if the US legalized marijuana, people would have no reason to buy it illegally from the cartels, putting the cartels out of business.
This has shown me that marijuana may not be as harmful as some may think. It may do our country better to stop trying to fight something that people will do anyway. We are putting a lot of money into the war on drugs when we could actually be profiting from it. If the government legalized marijuana nationwide and taxed it, our country could make a lot of money that it needs while at the same time eliminating the violence of the drug cartels.
I think the way I want this project to impact me is by showing me is that some things aren’t as bad as some may think. I have learned this from the research I have done. Many people think marijuana is a much worse drug than it really is, but I have learned that it really isn’t harmful enough to be illegal and it definitely isn’t harmful enough to spend millions preventing it.