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There are plenty of reasons to legalize marijuana, but I'll start with the big one: there is no reason for it to be illegal. In debating different topics, people will claim that our country is based on all sorts of things, but life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is something we can all agree is pretty important. How one person chooses to pursue happiness should be none of the government's business, as long as it's not depriving someone else of their rights. As long as marijuana remains illegal in public places, much as cigarettes now are in many states to protect others from unwanted second hand smoke, then an individual smoking marijuana is not harming anyone but himself. And I'm sure many people arguing for the legalization of marijuana make this same point, but I wouldn't want to leave out something so basic: alcoholics often get drunk and beat their children. Potheads often get high and eat snack cakes. Which is more of a danger to society?

I have never tried marijuana, but if I wanted to, I know where I could get it. Another good reason to legalize it is that keeping it illegal isn't doing all that much to limit access to it. Studies even show that decriminalization laws in many states have done absolutely nothing to affect use. It doesn't seem to have made it easier to get or made it any more attractive. People are smoking it anyway. Ask around, and you may be surprised to find how many people you know who have tried it; college professors, businessmen, politicians, doctors. Not all recreational users are deviants on the outskirts of society. If this drug were legal we could regulate it. The government could tax it (and how much money are we instead spending to arrest, convict, and jail users?). People who are going to get it anyway could get it more safely. It would be less attractive to those drawn to it to be rebellious. Although I don't believe it's a gateway drug (who's smoked pot without trying alcohol first?), if trying this illegal drug is what leads to the abuse of other illegal drugs, then legalizing marijuana would be cutting the bridge to heroin and cocaine.
Lastly, my personal passion on the subject: legalizing marijuana would be legalizing industrial hemp, marijuana's low THC sister. You can't get high off of it, but you can't grow it here because the plant looks the same as the illegal marijuana plant. From hemp you can make clothing without pesticides- cotton production uses more pesticides than any other US crop. You can make paper that can be recycled more times and lasts longer from a plant that grows many times faster than trees. The seeds are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids. Per acre, you can make several times more methane from hemp than you can from corn. When gas prices are what they are, and we have soldiers in Iraq, how can we justify not growing this plant in our country? There are enough other uses for industrial hemp that whole books have been written, so I won't go on about that subject.
There is no way I could cram into one little article all the good reasons to make marijuana legal- I didn't even mention medical marijuana, for example. If you still think that marijuana being legal would do more harm then good, I would encourage you to do your own research. Look up why it was made illegal in the first place. Look up what the founding fathers thought about it. Try to find out how many people are arrested for possession every day in your state, and find out how many of your tax dollars that's wasting. The war on drugs is a war against individual rights and against a plant. This is a war worth being outraged over.

Learn more about this author, Janet Annis.
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