Recently, more and more states within the U.S. have been legalizing the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana. The legalization of marijuana is a controversial idea that has been argued about for many years.
There are certainly pros and cons to making use of marijuana legal, but I believe the benefits of legalization outweigh the cons.
One of the most obvious benefits of marijuana is its pain alleviating characters. Marijuana has been proven to relieve the pain of people with serious, painful diseases such as cancer or multiple sclerosis.
According to “Marijuana’s Public Health Pros and Cons” by Thomas Strouse, M.D., marijuana’s affects on his patients have greatly impressed him:
“[A]s a palliative-care physician, I have been impressed with patient accounts of the relief they’ve experienced from marijuana — relief that they sometimes didn’t get from first and second line prescriptions.”
Strouse also believes that marijuana could have a positive effect against the opioid epidemic that has ravaged our country – research that has been done in the 25 states that have legalized marijuana shows that it has “a possible protective effect against opioid overdose deaths” due to its pain relieving qualities.
Legalizing marijuana would greatly decrease the amount of people who end up with jail time for having the drug. If medicinal marijuana were to be legalized, the punishment for selling recreational marijuana would be reduced from four years in prison to six months in jail and or a $500 fine, said Strouse.
If recreational marijuana were to be legalized, there would be no penalty. If law enforcement no longer has to worry about people using marijuana, it will free up their time to spend on more worthwhile cases.
Another benefit of legalization that many people may not know about are the many valuable uses of hemp. According to “Pros of Legalizing Weed” published in New Health Advisor, the legalization of marijuana would allow the hemp industry to flourish.
Yet another benefit of marijuana is hemp, which is already sold as food and some body products. By legalizing marijuana, a larger amount of hemp would be readily available that could be utilized for products such as paper, clothing, plastics, fuel, and food (Pros of Legalizing Weed). The addition of more hemp products to our economy could be greatly beneficial to our environment – instead of using plastics that have adverse effects on the environment and contribute to pollution, we could use hemp plastic that is less harmful.
Legalizing marijuana has many benefits, it seems almost foolish to keep it illegal. Legalization benefits almost everyone and does not prove to be significantly harmful to users. Although there are some aspects of marijuana that may seem negative, the pros most certainly outweigh the cons.
Anastasia Cottone is a contributing writer for The Bona Venture. Her email is cottona16@bonaventure.edu
