Drugs theme is one of the broadly used for discussion in the world. Youth is in the zone of risk in taking drugs as the adolescent psychological peculiarities are that all must be tried in this life. It is not the secret that drugs comprise a great danger from simple addiction to the great health problems in the future. Marijuana is broadly used in medicine to help cancer and AIDS patients, those who suffer from insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, paraplegia and other diseases. Some people insist on marijuana legalization not only in medical sphere but also in every day life. The legalization of marijuana should never be allowed as it may lead to irreversible effects.
The legalized medical usage of the marijuana is one of the reasons to demand for the universal legalizing of it. Proposition 215, which was offered on November, 1996, was approved and it gave push to the questioning whether it is possible to legalize the marijuana universally (Barak, 2007). There are some countries where the use of marijuana is allowed, and the debates whether to allow it in the whole world or to forbid is the main focus for society. People from different sides offer their arguments, and some of them are rather strict, but nevertheless the common opinion was not reached. The question about marijuana legalization has been raised when scientists made an attempt to prove that it is no more dangerous than alcohol or tobacco (International Debate Education Association, 2004).
Marijuana has the hallucinatory effect on the people’s minds that may lead to criminal rise in the society (International Debate Education Association, 2004). This is the main reason for forbidding the marijuana legalization. Under the effect of marijuana, people may commit some criminal affairs as the reality perception is awry. The intoxicated mind cannot make adequate decisions, so people become uncontrollable and cannot react adequately on the situations which may appear. People, who once tried marijuana, would search for ways to appear in the hallucinatory condition one more time. Marijuana is rather expensive to buy, so there is a possibility for searching for the illegal access to marijuana or to rob people in order to get money for it.
Universal legalization of marijuana may lead to usage of harder drugs and to the demand to legalize them. Marijuana is a drug, so its legalization may be the reason for some people to demand for the legalization of other drugs as there will not be any line between good and bad drugs. Legalizing marijuana will put on edge the laws about drugs forbiddance as people would think that the legalizing of one type of drugs is the step to universal legalization of all drugs. It would be very difficult to explain that there are two types of drugs, good and bad (Gerber, 2004). The result from marijuana legalization may serve as the pusher to use harder drugs, which are more dangerous, as people’s understanding is not always right. Allowing one type of drugs, people will demand for the other type of drugs legalization. The effects from harder drugs are much more dangerous.
Universal legalization of marijuana may lead to some social problems as there are always people who against this law accepting (International Debate Education Association, 2004). The negatives of marijuana legalization may organize a lot of strikes or other actions of civil disobedience which may cause a lot of problems not only in the state but also on the world level. Civil disobedience is the problem which every state wants to get rid of, and the demonstrations connected with marijuana legalization may bring a lot of problems. The street fights, violence and other situations may possibly occur between the members of different sides in the question of marijuana legalization as this problem is very fundamental for many people.
But still there are people who are sure that the legalization of marijuana will make no harm, vice versa, it may bring some profit to the state. There are a lot of arguments which may be offered in support of drug legalization. The marijuana legalization will bring extra income to the government budges as the result of taxation of marijuana selling. To support the idea of marijuana legalization some scientists offer the idea that alcohol addiction is much more dangerous for the people’s organism than smoking of marijuana (they also insist that marijuana is not harmful for people’s health). (Cermak, 2003). The other supportive ideas about universal marijuana legalization are as follows, being on the black market, it leads to crime and violence increase and the corruption encouragement among law enforcement officials and politicians. The problem of smuggling would disappear in the case of marijuana legalization (Levinson, 2003).
So, there are a lot of reasons which support both sides, whether to legalize marijuana usage or not, but my strong opinion is that it cannot be legalized as the harmful effects from it much more numerous than benefits. Marijuana may be legalized in medical sphere but definitely not universally. Drugs are drugs and there no any benefit from their usage. Till there is at least one negative idea about drug legalization, the law cannot be accepted.
Works Cited
- Cermak, Timmen L. Marijuana: What’s a Parent to Believe? Hazelden Publishing, 2003.
- International Debate Education Association. The debatabase book: a must-have guide for successful debate. IDEA, 2004.
- Barak, Gregg. Battleground: Criminal Justice. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007.
- Gerber, Rudolph Joseph. Legalizing marijuana: drug policy reform and prohibition politics. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004.
- Levinson, Martin H. “An Extensional Approach to Drug Legalization.” ETC.: A Review of General Semantics. 60.2 (2003)