My father, a healthcare professional and longtime sufferer of severe
arthritis, used to say marijuana should be legalized for medicinal
purposes;
while there is certainly a need for legal prescription painkillers, I
believe marijuana should be the last resort; But my stand in keeping
marijuana illegal is focused on those who have been clamoring for decades
to
make it legal for personal recreational use, to be sold and available in a
manner not much different from tobacco. No, it shouldn't be.
My first stand against legalizing marijuana is I do not wish to "get high"
from someone else's pot smoke-- if you smoke around others, they will get
a
contact buzz, whether they want to or not. That's not okay; it is not okay
at all. My second main issue is I'd no more appreciate being killed or
maimed by someone driving under the influence of pot than by a drunken
driver-- and while regulating alcohol limits is difficult enough, trying
to
do the same with marijuana would be virtually impossible, for everyone
reacts to it differently, to a different degree, as well as the potency of
the drug itself varying. No, I don't want to get "stoned" from someone's
"personal choice," nor do I want to end up as a casualty from a vehicle
driven by someone under-the-influence.
Other factors cannot be overlooked either. First, for the past couple of
decades it's been re****ted that nearly everyone who becomes involved with
so-called hard drugs began their experimentation with marijuana. In
addition
to the addictive nature, I suppose those who believe it is okay to break
the
law, abuse their bodies, and put others in danger from the effects of pot
don't really see much difference between marijuana and substances like
meth
and heroin. From an entirely different perspective, I don't see much
difference either.
Second, although it has not yet been infallibly proven, enough research
studies have concluded that marijuana use in youth causes some degree of
chromosome damage which even years on down the line significantly increase
their offspring's chances of developing childhood leukemia. Although not
conclusive, the risk is too much.
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