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Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

Marijuana has been legalized for thousands of years, as a medicinal, religious and recreational drug throughout the world. It migrated across each continent slowly, and its’ properties soon became well known and popular. However, during the 1930’s the U.S government recognized marijuana as a threat and released false stories to the public about the consequences of using marijuana. Such propaganda is referred to as ‘voodoo pharmacology’. Voodoo pharmacology is propaganda in which the idea that drugs can take control of you and can in turn drive you to commit insane acts such as mass murder is falsely advertised (taken from the TV documentary show, Penn and Teller, episode 4, season 2: “The War on Drugs”). Eventually in 1937 marijuana was illegalized from the U.S. The majority of the population of the U.S has been falsely educated into the idea that a drug like marijuana has more negative effects upon its user than it really does.
Due to marijuana’s widely known medical beneficial effects, some say that marijuana should be legalized for medical use and not for personal use. Marijuana is widely recognized as a very safe therapeutic drug and has been used and tested on for thousand of years. In addition, it has been proven to relieve pain in headaches and cramps, reduce nausea (proven to be extremely helpful for patients undergoing chemotherapy), reduce stress and depression, aid asthmatics to improve breathing, help prevent Glaucoma from worsening, induces drowsiness (helpful for those who suffer from insomnia) and relieve physical pain.
However, marijuana does have side negative effects, for example failure of short term memory, cravings of food, temporary blood shot eyes and temporary dry mouth, as well as range of paranoia and anxiety depending on the user. Moreover, according to Dr. Raphael Mechoulam, NORML, High Times and Omni magazines (September 1982), if marijuana were in fact legalized that 10-20% of...