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Marijuana: Should It Be Legal?
Marijuana has had an interesting history with it being originally legal, then illegal, now maybe legal again. Hemp, which is used in things like rope, sails, and even clothing, can be made into marijuana from its stems and leaves. The Virginia colonies passed a law in 1619 requiring every single farmer to grow hemp for the products previously stated products. The recreational use of marijuana was introduced by Mexican immigrants in about 1910 after the Mexican Revolution. The Great Depression hit America causing the loss of many jobs so when the already present fear of Mexican immigrants climaxed, the United States government wanted someone to blame for the Great Depression, they looked to marijuana and investigated and blamed many things on it and eventually made it illegal. For 79 years marijuana has been illegal, but now there are groups of people who believe that legalizing it will help America. Their main argument is that America spends so much money on keeping marijuana offenders in already overcrowded prisons.
Marijuana, when smoked as recreational, main purpose to get “high”, this happens by slowing down the brain and its reactions. So if someone is high and drives the results could be worse than drunk driving. One solution could be DUIs for marijuana. Despite this though drunk driving is still a major problem for America. One argument is since alcohol is such a problem why don't we put a prohibition on it again. In a New York TImes article it states“criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished.” So imposing prohibition on alcohol again would only cause further issues. So I feel that legalizing marijuana for recreational use would only cause more issues than they would solve.
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