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The Pros and Cons of Legalizing Marijuana

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The Pros and Cons of Legalizing Marijuana
In 2010 an estimated 443,000 people died prematurely from smoking tobacco or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking. Despite these risks, approximately 46.6 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes. Alcohol use last year led to 14,406 alcoholic liver disease deaths and 23,199 other alcohol related deaths excluding accidents and homicides. (Alcohol Use, 2009) Despite these alarming statistics, these substances remain legal and socially acceptable while marijuana, which has never killed anyone anywhere, is illegal, remains classified as a stage one controlled substance, which likens it to killer drugs such as LSD, and heroin, both so lethal you could die with a single use. Why is it socially acceptable to use substances, which kill thousands a year while a plant that is practically a miracle drug remains portrayed as one of the most dangerous substances, known to man? In this paper, we will look at the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana the financial impact as well as the effects it would have on industry. We will also look at social impact caused by legalizing marijuana can it be socially acceptable. Alcohol and tobacco continually kill people by the thousands and yet remain legal, why then is marijuana, a drug that has never killed a single person still illegal.
The declaration of independence and the constitution of the United States of America are written on hemp paper there were even laws on the subject of marijuana before that. America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619 it ordered all farmers to grow Indian hempseed there were several other must grow laws over the next 200 years. You would be imprisoned for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767, and during that time hemp was legal tender you could even pay your taxes with hemp. The United States Census of 1850 counted 8,327 hemp plantations growing cannabis hemp for cloth,
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