Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized in the U.S Creative Writing Essay

Why Marijuana should be legalized in the United States.
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Though some states in the US have legalized Marijuana either for medicinal or recreational use, federally, it is still illegal. Legalizing Marijuana is still a contentious topic that has dominated politics, and though the trend seems to tilt towards possible legalization, there are strong arguments for and against legalization. On the one hand, it is undeniable that Marijuana has adverse effects on its users, especially hallucinations, lowered reaction times, anxiety, addiction, etc. Proponents of legalizing Marijuana cite its medicinal benefits, reducing the impact of drug cartels and gangs in the communities, reducing the cost of policing marijuana users.
First, the enforcement of marijuana prohibition laws is racially discriminatory. The United States has a long history of racial profiling, especially of the black community. Criminalizing Marijuana has led to some black communities becoming targets of law enforcers who specifically search for it to find reasons for arrests. Illegal Marijuana has been a tool used to prevent upward social mobility in these communities. Studies show that blacks and whites use Marijuana almost at the same rate, but the blacks are four times most likely to be arrested for a drug-related crime CITATION Dyl13 \l 1033 (Matthews, 2013). Therefore, decriminalizing Marijuana can help reduce the unfair targeting of these communities by law enforcers and pave the way towards reducing racism in the country.
Enforcement of marijuana prohibition laws is costly. Changing tact on addressing drug issues could even lower the cost of enforcing the laws that prohibit narcotics. Decriminalizing drugs in Portugal and other European countries have led to lower drug abuse, and the resources used to enforce the laws can now be channeled into rehabilitating addicts CITATION Sus17 \l 1033 (Ferreira, 2017).
Marijuana has some medicinal properties that could benefit the people if legalized. Studies have shown that some compounds extracted from cannabis inhibit cancer and ...