Audrey Peters
Composition I
31 March 2011
Research Paper
Legalizing marijuana is an issue that has been thrown around in the United States for many of years. Marijuana has many names, such as weed, ganja, hemp, cannabis, Mary Jane, and grass. Marijuana is widely used in the United States and over one hundred million people have admitted to smoking marijuana. Yet, the drug is considered a schedule one drug and is illegal according to federal laws. Some people believe that marijuana should be legal for medical uses. Others think the drug should never be made legal and the idea should never be brought up. Many researches have been made to indicate that marijuana can be used for medical purposes. The drug was first made illegal in the United States during the 1930’s. However, many states such as California, Oregon, and North Dakota have been decriminalizing marijuana and even legalizing marijuana for medical purposes only. Decriminalizing marijuana would mean that small amounts of marijuana, anything under seven grams, would be considered legal. Possession and use of the drug is still punishable by federal laws but in these certain states the state drug laws are taken less serious. Pros and cons of marijuana
are thrown around every day, whether marijuana should be legal is up to the United States government. The first ad is by the Rigo Design Studio. The ad has James Franco, a famous actor from the Spiderman trill logy, pretending to hit a marijuana joint. The purpose of the ad is to show people that marijuana did not ruin Franco’s career and the overall goal is to get marijuana legalized. The ad says that legalizing marijuana would help the economy and that jails would not be as crowded. In 2009 the government arrested over eight hundred thousand people for marijuana related crimes. (Norml.org) People have estimated ten billion dollars of tax payers’ money is used to jail these marijuana users and to enforce marijuana
Cited: NORML. Advertisement. 2010 Web. 01 April 2011 http://stash.norml.org/ask-obama-top-100-questions-about- ending-drug-war-legalizing-marijuana “Obama’s many views on marijuana”