Free Essay: Pros and Cons of Legalization of Marijuana

The war on hard drugs like marijuana has become an icon all over the world. The reason behind this is the quest of prohibiting the acquisition of drugs and whether to make them legal. Such drugs, often psychoactive, have heavenly criminalized people by making them get longer prison sentences because of possessing them. That is why the effort of decriminalizing marijuana has raised debates on whether to make them legal or look at more emphasis on how adverse they are to a country. The most persuasive arguments for the legalization of hard drugs are based on economic benefits. The essay will elaborate more on the advantages and disadvantages of legalizing marijuana.

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Benefits of Legalization

Legalization can assist the government increase tax revenue because of the decrease of local jails and federal prisons. The finance will also redeem the wrongdoers that have broken the law. In the U.S. for instance, when marijuana is legalized, the government can make up to 46.7 billion every year from tax revenues as compared to the amount they will make on alcohol (Pacula, 2010). Decriminalizing marijuana is that it will make prisons free of offenders that are unsafe and violent.

According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 16 percent of current prisoners become violent because of using marijuana (Feng, 2011). Therefore, decriminalizing will reduce confinement costs, and overcrowding and give options for prisoners to go through rehabilitation to recover. By legalizing cannabis, tax money put aside will continue to develop the nation and upgrade the lifestyles of citizens. Another advantage is that the average cost to feed and house an inmate will reduce.

Assuming marijuana is legalized, their nation would have excess money to carry out other businesses in the case of incarcerated women and men. The legalization of cannabis would also assist the government in paying its debts from the extra money they are collecting (Feng, 2011). This means spending less on housing for lawbreakers and funds for rehabilitation centers. Economic factors are not enough to convince people that legalization is beneficial.

Disadvantages of Legalization

The merits are that legalizing cannabis will embark more on violet dangers in communities and health. Legalizing poses more risks such as chaos and sometimes death due to overdoes. Most of them will also be influenced to use potent drugs like heroin by using used needles left in public places and parks. As a result, it poses a risk of other diseases and injury risks, particularly among children (Williams, Ours, & Grossman, 2016). Even though human beings have the freedom to live they want, legalizing can be so dangerous because people will choose to use more dangerous drugs like cocaine and heroin. Also, when one is high on cannabis, they end up hurting themselves while using machinery.

Marijuana also affects the brain through intoxication and its chemical nature. The brain's structure is vital in memory and learning. Therefore when overused, it changes the structural alteration by affecting the hippocampus. There are strong links between marijuana use and mood disorders. According to research, the use of marijuana increases depressive symptoms in a person to a certain degree (Williams, Ours, & Grossman, 2016). In most cases, it induced mood challenges, primarily when used as self-medication. Cannabis also activates genetic mood vulnerabilities and freestanding moods when used.

Concurrent depression and marijuana dependence debilitate the combination of adverse consequences. The problems caused by cannabis include making a person feel helpless and hopeless, isolated and withdrawn low motivation, and low energy (Mair, Freisthler, Ponicki & Gaidus, 2015). The individual also develops feelings of poor self-worth, lack of participation in life activities and relationships, lack of pleasure, and challenges in social functioning like decreased drive, poor communication, and weak social interactions.

Many people also suffer from light-spell dizziness immediately after they use cannabis. Some of them end up having severe headaches. In other words, the use of marijuana can sometimes be mild or become fatal. Anyone who is a fitness enthusiast and takes pot ends up ruining their diet routine (Mair, Freisthler, Ponicki & Gaidus, 2015). When such people smoke marijuana, the brain's pathways are affected in that they end up triggering digestion problems and untimely hunger spans. This means the user is unable to control their diet, and this causes other health challenges.

Any person that has a heart condition should not risk taking cannabis. Even if the person does not have complications taking the drug will increase heart attack chances. Research has shown that when users use the drug, their heart rate begins to rise and their chances of getting a heart attack become hire (Mair, Freisthler, Ponicki & Gaidus, 2015). The same study also showed that medical practitioners are not allowed to use marijuana.

Conclusion

Marijuana is a drug that has both benefits and merits. Depending on the usage, this drug is known to bring harm and at the same time, becomes beneficial in treating various diseases. The benefits discussed include assisting the government to pay their debts, increasing tax revenue, and also reducing confinement costs. The disadvantages include, people also suffer from light spell dizziness which affects the brain through intoxication, increases heart attack chances, and the users are unable to control their diet.

References

Feng, B. (2011). Federal Justice Statistics Program: Offenders Released From Prison, 2008. ICPSR Data Holdings, 88-122. doi: 10.3886/icpsr29405.v1

Mair, C., Freisthler, B., Ponicki, W. R., & Gaidus, A. (2015). The impacts of marijuana dispensary density and neighborhood ecology on marijuana abuse and dependence. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 154, 111-116. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2015.06.019

Pacula, R. (2010). Examining the Impact of Marijuana Legalization on Marijuana Consumption: Insights from the Economics Literature, 111-143. doi: 10.7249/wr770

Williams, J., Ours, J. C. V., & Grossman, M. (2016). Attitudes to legalizing cannabis use. Health Economics, 25(9), 1201-1216. doi: 10.1002/sec.3340