"). This goes in hand with another SAMSA finding that 36% of the American population has used illicit drugs at least once in their lifetime. Over a third of our population has at least tried drugs, and it can reasonably be assumed that marijuana was the drug most used. Survey results such as these show how prevalent marijuana is in today's society as opposed to other so called "more harmful" drugs. This should be met with some good fortune as that the most prevalent drug used is not a lethal killer. .
In these discussions on marijuana, two different types of legalization are brought up. They are recreational and medicinal use. These do not always go hand in hand, as some proponents are only supporters of one of the two. However, before getting into any arguments over the pros and cons of legalization, one must understand the differences between these two types. Recreation or general personal use, has been the main fight fought by legalization proponents over the years. It simply is the ability to use marijuana on your own time whenever one wishes, without fear of legal consequence. As long as this argument has been around, it has been shot down by U.S. courts. In recent years, however, a second debate in the heated topic of marijuana legalization has popped up; medical use. The idea that the use of marijuana may help those with terminal illnesses cope with pain and suffering is a relatively new one. It has also been more successful in the United States than personal use in receiving positive attention and coming closer to legalization.
Of course now comes the pros and cons to legalization. What to people on both sides use as their reasons? On the pro-legalization side, outside of medicinal use, the main reason is crime. It is believed that with abolition of prohibited marijuana the black market that comes with the illicit drug would be greatly hurt. The black markets basically inflate the price of marijuana far beyond its actual value.