Legalize It? or Keep It Banned?

Marijuana, its a word and a drug that when mentioned in many places can get you more than just dirty looks. It seems today that many people are severely up tight about this one drug in particular, why? Do we all really know the statistics and facts about it? Lets be honest, not all of us do and thats fine. I'm not here to shove this information down your throat or change peoples minds in a single night, but rather i wanna open the door and show both sides of this "Drug". I want a lot of feed back on this fellow hubbers!!!

The big question: "Legalize it? or keep it band?"

How many people do you think have ever smoked marijuana in the United States? As THE most commonly used illegal drug, would it surprise you that over 100 million Americans have tried marijuana at least once? or is the fact that more than 25 million of those have smoked within the last year? either way you look at it, those numbers in it's self are fairly staggering. an additional 6 thousand Americans try marijuana for the first time every day!

So why do so many people go out and try it? I say go out and try it because its not like someone comes to your house and says "Hey try this! its for a survey", or at least that hasn't happened to me! Is it peer pressure that has 6 thousand people a day trying it for the first time? It's possible yes, but more realistically the average american wants to know what being "high" is like, and how it makes you feel.

Marijuana's main mind-altering or psychoactive ingredient is called THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol). The immediate physical effects of this include an elevated heart beat and pulse rate, bloodshot eyes, and a dry mouth or throat. The "high" gives you a nice, calm, enjoyable, floaty kinda buzz to begin with, when you continued smoking from the Buzz level, you will notice that things quickly get funnier. You may experience phases of paranoia at this level, but for the more the person smokes the less paranoid they get. The feeling however comes from breaking a law to do it, or having to cover it up or hide it to begin with. You generally feel good, may want to do something fun or exciting, will like the taste of food and drink, and can still perform and enjoy all your daily activities. Audio and Video experiences seem enhanced to you.

Health Risks:

Pro: "There is very little evidence that smoking marijuana as a means of taking it represents a significant health risk. Although cannabis has been smoked widely in Western countries for more than four decades, there have been no reported cases of lung cancer or emphysema attributed to marijuana. I suspect that a day's breathing in any city with poor air quality poses more of a threat than inhaling a day's dose -- which for many ailments is just a portion of a joint -- of marijuana." says Lester Grinspoon, MD of Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Is that not one of the craziest things you've heard in a while? Smoking weed is illegal and the government claims its being a bad drug for you yet when you go outside to a busy city, you hurt your health more just by breathing the air outside... Maybe city air should be illegal instead! It also helps people overcome many ailments and live a normal life, watch this short video on multiple Sclerosis to see the effects in action and some additional information.

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh7LynS0TT29M2934D

Cons: "3-4 Cannabis cigarettes a day are associated with the same evidence of acute and chronic bronchitis and the same degree of damage to the bronchial mucosa as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day. Cannabis smoking is likely to weaken the immune system. Infections of the lung are due to a combination of smoking-related damage to the cells lining the bronchial passage and impairment of the principal immune cells in the small air sacs caused by cannabis." -- British Lung Foundation "Smoking Gun: The Impact of Cannabis Smoking on Respiratory Health." With that being said, smoking anything is not optimal for personal health, but no true damages of marijuana have been recorded. No OD, no fatal car accidents or murder over a deal. If anything people that smoke marijuana are far more conscience about what they do outside of their house than most people are that are sober! silly accusation? No, think about this, when you wake up and go to work, are you truly focused on your speed and cars around you? or are you more worried about getting that coffee, maybe faster ways to get through that morning rush, maybe checking your phone, emails, text ect.

For the people that do smoke, they are far more concerned about their speed, spacing on cars around them, where they're going and getting there safe are the top priorities. So now who in these cases is the more distracted driver? In fact three days ago I had a little run in with one of these drivers, I made a left turn on a green arrow and out of no where this guy drives right through his red light and T-bones me. Did some good damage to my car and of all things, he wasn't high, he wasn't drunk, he was sober late for work, talking on the phone and checking emails. Stellar job good sir.

US Government Officials Views

Pros: "The evidence in this record [9-6-88 ruling] clearly shows that marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of this substance in light of the evidence in this record." says Judge Francis L. Young, DEA Administrative Law Judge on Administrative ruling on Petition to Reschedule Marijuana, Sep. 1988. He claimed this over 20 years ago, yet here we still stand with it as a schedule 1 narcotic, why? If it was legalized and taxed by the government, not only would crime go down country wide, but we as a country would begin to turn the national debt around and could potentially get out of debt within 3-5 years. Something the fat cats in office can't seem to figure out yet the facts are right there staring at everyones face.

Cons: "Smoked marijuana damages the brain, heart, lungs, and immune system. It impairs learning and interferes with memory, perception, and judgment. Smoked marijuana contains cancer-causing compounds and has been implicated in a high percentage of automobile crashes and workplace accidents." Claims John Walters, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. I can agree with only a few of these points, memory and perception, yes they become impaired, it's a mind altering drug so things look and feel different as well as it having an effect on your short term memory. As far as impairing learning, i can't speak for everyone in the world but I've never had a problem with my grades. Of all the test I have taken in said mind state, I've never failed a test. Just to easy my mind and have a little fun I averaged out my last 10 test scores in an altered state of mind and the last 10 scores sober at test time. Marijuana test scores averaged to 92% and sober averaged to 93%. I can say that for me personally it has no effect on my ability to take a test, study or judgment.

These are only a few facts on marijuana and there are thousands more online, but lets here what you all have to say! comment the answer to the question of the day!

Legalize it, or keep it banned?

For more videos and information visit here:

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhWA6f0NsRm7IwO5Q8

The history of marijuana, one of the best videos: http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshh2oN7X6llyE4kUaw8