by Tom Calhoun

Created on: April 28, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2009

Should marijuana be legalized or should people just continue to smoke it illegally and have this country lose revenue on its sale? Is this stuff any more harmful than cigarettes or chew, or alcohol? Actually if the truth were known marijuana, or pot as it is called if not laced or cross pollenated with other hybrid pot is really not any worse than drinking. Yes they both kill brain cells and they both cause your senses to be less than adequate to drive or operate any machinery, but in reality the health concerns are no different than alcohol. If the truth were known, smoking cigarettes are far more harmful than any joint you could smoke, and the second hand smoke from tobacco is far worse than that of pot smoke.

Perhaps the main reason we should look at legalizing marijuana is the money factor. Look at what people spend to buy cigarettes, and look at the harm it causes not only for the smoker, but for the people around them as well. It is proven that cigarrette smoke causes cancer, and that second hand smoke is just as bad for those breathing it in around them. However pot smokers are not really prone to cancer its said it causes health problems, but cancer does not seem to be on that list, and the second hand smoke only gives those breathing it in a buzz or a little feeling of being high. In fact it has not been proven that smoking pot has any ill effect on people, it does however state that it helps with cancer patience while in chemo therapy by reducing the effects of chemo. The fact is if the government legalized pot they could tax it as much as they do tobacco products and gain a monetary advantage, but more so than that it would actually create jobs. Somebody would have to plant it, harvest, and package it, and then there would have to be someone to distribute it as well. Would this not be a good thing especially now with the economy being in such a strain.

As a society, we accept drinking alcohol as socially acceptable, yet there are more people dying on our roads every year from drunk drivers. How many deaths have ever been caused by smoking pot and then driving your car? Very few from what has been reported, and in fact those that have died in cars while smoking were one care accidents, and usually not caused by the affects of the pot but the dropping of a joint on the seat or floor and the driver trying to retrieve it causing them to drive off the road and crash their car.

Society has also accepted smoking as to be socially acceptable, and how many people die of smoke related illness every day? Its in the 100,s of thousands. Yet it's still legal to smoke cigarettes, cigars and pipes knowing people are dying from it. So why is it so wrong to smoke pot? How can we be so smart yet so stupid at the same time. We know all these things are harmful to the user, and in most case the non user around them and yet we say it's OK to drink and then drive putting everyone on the road in danger, and it's OK to smoke allowing it to drift into someone's face for them to breath causing them great harm. On top of all of this the government taxes it and makes money on, what is basically, death.

If pot were legalized it could be controlled by the government, taxed, and a new form of revenue would be created. Jobs would be created and an entirely new industry would be formed. This industry would put people to work, add a tax base to cities, counties and states all over the country, and believe it or not would less of a burden on society than cigarettes, and alcohol are today. Let's do it, let's start a new industry and put peple to work, gain the tax advantage and win the war on this drug.

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