Should Marijuana Be Legal - 1464 Words

While marijuana is a potentially harmful drug to those who use it, but it is really no more dangerous than alcohol or cigarettes. Both of these are harmful to the user and they have many fatalities connected to each, directly or indirectly. Marijuana has been on prohibition for far too long now and states are starting to realize that. Marijuana is in our culture, it always has been, and it has medical benefits and can help our economy by putting tax dollars into the system. Marijuana has been used for centuries for religious and medicinal purposes around the world. Jack Herer, best known for his work, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, said that hemp â€Å"possessed a near-limitless potential for replacing petrochemical and timber productions and†¦show more content†¦Regan later came and claimed that marijuana was â€Å"the most dangerous drug in America† (Lee). Today, marijuana is being rediscovered for its medicinal purposes. One such case is the plant named â€Å"Charlotte’s Web†. This plant is named after Charlotte Figi, a 5-year-old girl with Dravet’s syndrome, which caused her to have up to 300 grand mal seizures every day (â€Å"Charlotte’s Web†). Charlotte’s Web is a special strain of marijuana that has all the THC removed from it, which is the psychoactive ingredient that can cause seizures, and it has high levels of cannabidiol (CBD) in it, which has anti-seizure properties in it (â€Å"Charlotte’s Web†). Charlotte’s father said that â€Å"A year ago, she could only say one word†¦ Now she says complete sentences† (â€Å"Charlotte’s Web†). Because it is legal at a federal level, families from across the nation have to uproot their lives and move to Colorado where they can find the plant, â€Å"It includes†¦ families willing to move from J apan and the Philippines† to get these life-saving drugs to their children because the fact is, for most children with the syndrome, without this life-saving drug, they would die before reaching adulthood (â€Å"Charlotte’s Web†). Charlotte’s Web is a lifesaving and life changing drug for those who get to use it, yet we are resisting access to it and making families be torn away from the place they