... source, "Every scientifically conducted poll ever conducted found that more than sixty percent of the American people support legal access to medical marijuana". How, in a democratic country is it possible for something that the majority of the population approves of, to be illegal? One possible solution that is rarely talked about is the fact that the government could tax marijuana if it ... add up to over 18,000 New Yorkers every year in jail for drug possession. In 2001, there were 723, 627 marijuana related arrests in the United States. Of these arrests, 88.6 percent of them were fo...

• Word Count: 1519
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... smoking marijuana. It also treated manic and depressive disorders ("Cannabis Vault 6"). Doctor Roger Adams and Todd Mikuriya were able to rehabilitate numerous alcoholics by substituting smoked marijuana for alcohol in 1942. Out of seventy cases of alcoholics, fifty-nine reported clinical alleviation of their symptoms. Although this study was amazingly successful, using marijuana to help neurotic depressives was ... for their illnesses. The Compassionate Use Program was slowly but surely beginning to allow ill citizens to be prescribed marijuana for their illnesses. The Clinton Administr...

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... and its Impact on Use). Other countries that have already decriminalized marijuana have continued doing studies on their population's usage of marijuana and other drugs. The Netherlands has officially tolerated the cultivation, sale, and possession of small amounts of marijuana. Marijuana in the Netherlands is still technically illegal, but a policy of prosecutional discretion has allowed more than 1000 retail ... . New York professors Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D. and John Morgan, M.D. compared usage rates among young people in the US to the usage rates by the same age groups in the Netherlands. ...

• Word Count: 1417
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... that takes them to another level. Other teens smoke pot because they are curious or because of peer pressure. The drug use in America is not decreasing. "Between 1992 and 1995 the marijuana usage among 12-17 year olds doubled. Sixty percent of kids who use mariju! ana before the ... use cocaine than non marijuana smoking peers (Newsweek 2)." "If drugs did not exist then our governors would have intended them, to make the population more vulnerable to arrest and imprisonment (Vanity Fair 4)." Marijuana use has many problems that range from short term to long effects. Either way ... those...

• Word Count: 1314
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... have. The active ingredient of marijuana, called tetrahydrocannabinol, has a variety of effects. It reduces pain, lowers body temperature, and enhances appetite. It achieves these effects by binding to cells in the brain called cannabinoid receptors. The use of marijuana relieves intra-ocular pressure, which is useful to someone suffering from glaucoma. Studies have also shown that marijuana is a significant source ... (Freedom ). Drug violators are a major cause of extreme overcrowding in US prisons. In 1992, 59,000 inmates were added to make a record setting 833,600 inmates nationwide...

• Word Count: 1414
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... April 14, 1937. Reformers still press legislation today to make the psychoactive plant available to medical patients as well as the general adult population. One of their main arguments is that our constitution promises us the right to decide for ourselves what to do or what not to ... or nurses discouraged him from smoking weed to keep the food down. That was in 1992; till this day Chris Donald is cancer free and is very thankful to marijuana allowing him to eat, which in return let him improve his condition faster (Michaels 150). Sadly, not all the ... but to a point. The are still a...

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• Has Bibliography

... heart rates, and has the potential to trigger severe anxiety, paranoia, and lethargy (www.ndsn.com). Yet I also feel its effects are in many ways less harmful than those of alcohol and tobacco-for instance, alcohol's potential to cause cirrhosis and tobacco's links to lung cancer and ... the large amounts of money spent on enforcement and prosecution, and prison overcrowding. The percentage of the American population living in prison has increased from .061 in 1880 to .1 in 1920 to .35 in 1995, with an associated tripling of real tax dollars required to house inmates. Today, 62% of all...

• Word Count: 1532
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate