Maybe The Government Is Right About Marijuana | Teen Ink

Maybe The Government Is Right About Marijuana

December 13, 2009
By EnglishFreak BRONZE, Valley Park, Missouri
EnglishFreak BRONZE, Valley Park, Missouri
2 articles 0 photos 3 comments

In the United States marijuana is considered a highly addictive illicit drug. If you are caught possessing such drug, depending on the quantity, you will be given a permanent record with a felony and possibly finding yourself a new roommate in a much smaller room. Marijuana is unlike other drugs because it is a naturally occurring plant that some people have illegally manipulated to carry higher levels of tetra hydrochloride (THC), which gives the user the ‘high’ feeling.

Marijuana hurts everyone around the user. Those under the influence may become very lazy and unlike their drunken buddies they may not want to be included in destructive behavior. It is also typical, because of the lack of motivation, that they do not want to drive; when a drunk person is driving usually they will speed and swerve between lanes without warning. Drivers, who are high, prefer to have high-speed endeavors at fifteen to twenty mph. This style of driving is much more dangerous because people may not be ready for the overly cautious driving.

Because marijuana is illegal, the underground trade network that has been established produces no money for the government like alcohol or tobacco. The only money the government gets is when it searches a possible drug dealer’s house. The best part for the government is the cost it takes to enforce laws about marijuana. This usually much greater than the money recovered could ever add up to. If marijuana was sold in stores like alcohol and tobacco, the government could establish a tax on it that could help repay some of the billions of debt our country has established, not to mention Law enforcement could also concentrate on crimes that don’t involve only one person like murders and rape.

Another reason marijuana is illegal is because unlike alcohol, which is legal, if you use too much, you won’t suffer from poisoning and you don’t run the risk of dying. When a marijuana addict uses too much pot, they suffer with severe hunger and become very lethargic. However, when a person consumes alcohol they tend to ride a rollercoaster of energy. The first few drinks a person ingests tend to relax them, the next round gets them a little more obnoxious by becoming louder and wanting to be more active. The drinker soon becomes uncontrollable, often become excessively rowdy, even being unable to walk and talk logically. Finally, if the person consumes even more alcohol they may pass out from alcohol poisoning, which left untreated can become blinding or fatal. Logically marijuana, ‘the harder drug ‘is illegal.

Tobacco, which is legal is generally not grown organically and contains lots of harmful chemicals. When smoked carbon monoxide is inhaled. Marijuana is usually organically grown but still contains a lot of the same chemicals that tobacco has. Tobacco has always been legal in the United States and has very high taxes on the products that help support government’s funding. Because marijuana is illegal, it complicates the process the government would have to go through to apply a considerably large tax on it. Because the trade of marijuana is done with any and all avoidance of Law enforcement, the government knows no one would claim and profits they may have made from selling illegal substances.

There would be no beneficial effects on the community like alcohol and tobacco bring. Not to mention all the extra paperwork the government would have to do and the cut down on the percent of the population that would remain incarcerated. For all these reasons it is extremely logical why marijuana remains illegal.



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This article has 26 comments.


on Mar. 6 2010 at 9:26 pm
morgan_e SILVER, Callaway, Florida
7 articles 0 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
Live life to the fullest.

Okay, I do not mean to sound like a jerk but get off your soap box for a moment and listen. First of all alcohol should be illegal becuase you could die from alcohal poisning and tobacco could give you cancer and you could die from that. So it should be illegal to. Plus, most people who die or get into accidents are drunk and if people die of health related issues it is probably because of lung cancer or something related to tabacco. So if weed was legal, the goverment could benifit from it and there would not be as many accidents. Of course people would be lazy and mellow, at least they would not be getting out of the house messed up and getting into car wrecks. In the long run people could benifit from weed being legal. Yeah, the person would get hungry but at least they are not ending up in the ICU or six feet under. So if I were you, I would reconsider why weed should be illegal in the first place because I know for a fact that the goverment would love to be making money off of something as valuable as weed. And jsut in case you are wondering I do not even do weed it is just that I have lost people to alcohal and tobacco and I would have much rather have had them smoke weed than die of ethier one of those.

on Mar. 6 2010 at 11:37 am
TheProphet GOLD, Antelope, California
14 articles 0 photos 24 comments

Favorite Quote:
Not only is the future unwritten, but it also belongs to us.

Lol, satire. I get it. This was like a Stephen Colbert monologue or something.

on Jan. 7 2010 at 4:54 pm
chrissyclarinetist BRONZE, Delta Junction, Alaska
2 articles 0 photos 14 comments
ohhhhhhhhh lol. yea. sarcasam is kinda wasted on me. so im sry. but yea. i agree with u then! way to go man

on Jan. 7 2010 at 2:07 pm
awesome_poet BRONZE, Many, Louisiana
1 article 0 photos 16 comments
i can sense it LOL.....and i think it should be legal...why not, people are going to to what they want...bottom line. at least it's not coke or something.

on Jan. 7 2010 at 11:42 am
EnglishFreak BRONZE, Valley Park, Missouri
2 articles 0 photos 3 comments
Sacarsam- Can you really not sense that?

on Jan. 7 2010 at 11:01 am
chrissyclarinetist BRONZE, Delta Junction, Alaska
2 articles 0 photos 14 comments
with all due respect, you are crazy. the government could BENIFIT from making marijuana legal. the tax that is on cigarettes could be on marijuana, helping our country our of our deficit. only good could come from making marijuana legal.