Wyckly

Today, most of us recognize marijuana as an illegal substance. But, history tells us that wasn’t always the case. The use of marijuana began as early as 2727 B.C. when the Chinese began to use the plant as a medicine. Marijuana also was part of the discovery of “The New World” when Christopher Columbus brought the plant Cannabis Sativa to the newfound America in 1492. In 1619 it was required for all settlers in Jamestown to grow cannabis. In 1797 one of our founding fathers, George Washington grew cannabis as a main cash crop at Mount Vernon. In 1876, the Sultan of Turkey gave the United States a gift of marijuana. In 1908, Henry Ford’s first Model-T was made of hemp plastic and ran completely on hemp ethanol.

Then in 1937, marijuana was banned in the United States of America by the federal law. Despite this, marijuana was used in our victory in one of the most devastating wars of all time, World War II, when the United States used the plant as a truth serum to get information out of prisoners. By 1965, 1 million Americans had already tried marijuana. Just seven years later in 1972 the number of people who had tried marijuana increased by about 23 million, making 24 million people who had used the substance at least once. In the 1980’s, Ronald Reagan and his committee(s) had started their “War on Drugs”. Due to this, every 38 seconds someone was arrested for violating cannabis law in the 1980’s.  Later, in 1996, Proposition 215 was passed in California making medicinal marijuana legal in California. Now, marijuana is America’s number 1 cash crop bringing in an average of $38 billion a year, even though it is not legal in every state.

Marijuana is defined as, “the most widely used illegal drug in the United States. It is a dry, shredded green/brown mix of flowers, stems, and leaves of the plant Cannabis sativa. A stronger form of marijuana called hashish (hash) looks like brown or black cakes or balls. The many street names for marijuana include pot, herb, weed, grass, Jane, reefer, dope, and ganja.” Although marijuana is illegal in the United States many citizens believe it should be legalized. Some of the more paramount reasons people believe marijuana should be legalized are medical benefits and a stronger economy.

Legalizing marijuana across the United States could create a much more prosperous economy. Even with it not being completely legal, it is still America’s number one cash crop. If marijuana were legal completely and taxed at around 10% it could bring an additional $1.4 billion just to California alone. It is estimated that, figure would only be a fraction of the revenues that it would bring in to the United States. It would also create thousands of new jobs for unemployed people in agriculture, packaging, marketing, and advertising.

Legalizing marijuana also offers a variety of medical benefits for victims of cancer, especially in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Chemotherapy can lessen a patient’s appetite, but with the help of marijuana, it can increase a patient’s appetite, making them healthier. Marijuana can also help cancer patients fight the pain they face without getting high at the same time.

If marijuana were legalized, the FDA could regulate the quality and safety of it. This would lessen the amount of sicknesses due to marijuana. If it was brought into the legitimate business world, companies could regulate and oversee the production of marijuana making it a more respectable and less dangerous market.

Legalizing marijuana would also lessen the crime rate in the United States. The U.S. is the most “criminal” country in the world; with 5% of the world’s population and 25% of them are prisoners. America is spending more than $60 billion a year on corrections, and about one-third of those being corrected are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes. We also spend about $150 billion on policing and courts, and 47.5% of all drug arrests are marijuana-related. This is an extremely large sum of money, which is mostly non-federal, which means it would be coming out of the taxpayers pockets. With marijuana legalized, the taxpayers of America would not pay as high a, tax for correctional facilities as they are now. It could actually save taxpayers money. This money could then help pay for better schools or infrastructure, or simply returned back to the public.

Many people believe that marijuana is a deadly substance similar to others such as LSD, methamphetamines, prescription drugs, cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy. But this isn’t true. Many studies have been done on marijuana, such as one done by Stephen Sidney, MD, and associate director for research for Kaiser Permanente, Oakland California. This study showed that there has never been a death directly related to the use of marijuana. This doesn’t mean it isn’t harmless, but it shows that it isn’t a deadly substance like many people believe.

 In summary there are many reasons legalizing marijuana would benefit the United States. It would help our failing economy prosper, it could help people with illnesses such as cancer and depression, it could be regulated by the FDA making it more respectable, it would lessen the crime rate of the United States, and it isn’t deadly like many people falsely believe. All in all, I believe marijuana should be legalized for these reasons.

Well, it’s that time of year again. “What?” you might be asking! School time. School in most places is back in session ending summer. So here is a few questions.

1. Are you looking forward to the new school year?
2. What grade are you going into

I once had a weird dream and this is what happened… I was at school and I raised my hand and asked to go to the bathroom. The teacher said yes, I left the class and went to the bathroom. Got in the bathroom, did my business, walked out, and strolled back into the classroom. Walked to my desk and put my head in my textbook. I casually looked up noticing how quiet it was and saw that everybody was shaped like Cantaloupes. I shook my head and did a double take and nothing changed. Then they started to grow fangs, legs, and arms. I quickly got out of my seat ran down the hall and hid behind a corner. Everything seemed to be Gone after a good 10 minutes, so I got up and looked around and saw more and more cantaloupes surrounding me. I ran through them and quickly noticed a stinging pain in my neck I had been bitten, then I woke up and it ended!

That surprisingly was a real dream I had :(