Marijuana should not be legalized

I found very interesting an article called, “So Much To Say About Mary!....” It was published in the “Necessary Change 24/7” blog by unknown author. In the article, the author stands for the legalization of marijuana for economical, medical and mood. I strongly disagree with the author’s point of view related to marijuana. In my opinion, marijuana should not be legalized because it brings social and economic negative effects.

First of all, marijuana should not be legalized because it brings social negative effects. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “Marijuana is the most commonly abused illicit drug in the United States. It is a dry, shredded green and brown mix of flowers, stems, seeds, and leaves derived from the hemp plant Cannabis sativa.” This sounds very natural, but it also contains many chemicals. According to the Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, “The main mind-altering (psychoactive) ingredient in marijuana is THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), but more than 400 other chemicals also are in the plant. The amount of THC in the marijuana determines how strong its effects will be.” The consumption of one plant combined with more than 400 chemicals will cause a social breakdown. After legalizing marijuana, it will be cheaper and easier to get, even for children and teenagers because it is well known that many of the consumers are underage. Many people think that marijuana is a harmless plant, but the true is that it has too many chemicals that affect people’s health. According to Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, "the strength of today's marijuana is as much as ten times greater than the marijuana used in the early 1970s.” Another social negative effect is the crime increase. People acting under drug effects can violate the law without being aware of it. Also, when addicts do not have the money for buying marijuana, they are able to steal or kill. Then many people will feel unsafe walking around their towns or cities.

Second, marijuana should not be legalized because it brings economic negative effects. The article “So Much To Say About Mary!.... says that “all the taxed marijuana we would have to regenerate the economy.” However, if marijuana becomes cheaper, easier to get and people become very use to it will increase the numbers of the consumers. In other words, it will increase the addiction. But how this increase will affect the economy? First of all, the fact that more people would become addict means that more people would get sick, and more people would need medical and rehabilitation treatments which would increase the health care cost. In addition, it would generate a profitable black market among the people who are not authorized to buy it such as children and teenagers. In order to control the social problems, government would have to invest more money in the security such as hiring and training more police officers, buying more guns, motorcycles and cars, and also, government would have to build more jails and more judges. Finally, it would bring environmental problems such as cutting down trees in order to cultivate cannabis, soil overexploitation and soil salinization.

In conclusion, marijuana should not be legalized because it would bring several disturbances in the social and economic patterns. Firs of all, it will increase the numbers of addicts. Furthermore, it would raise crime rates in cities and negative economical effects. Legalizing of marijuana just would increase medical care costs, prevention programs, security system and environmental costs.