Should alcohol be illegal or marijuana be legal?

Alcohol, nicotine, coffee are commonly legalized drugs in most countries and the USA is not an exception, despite the fact that they lead to addiction and can have harmful effects on health. “Each day, many of us use consciousness-altering drugs, usually without even being aware that we are taking drugs.  Coffee contains the stimulant drug caffeine, cigarettes contain the stimulant drug nicotine, and alcohol is a powerful depressant drug.  Millions of individuals who would never consider using drugs use, abuse, or are addicted to these drugs” (Lahey, 189). However, marijuana, considered by some researchers even less dangerous, is not legalized yet.

The harm caused by the consumption of marijuana is comparatively less than the harm caused by alcohol and tobacco which are legalized. If the government wants to be consequent in its actions everything mentioned should be either banned or legalized. It is medically proved that marijuana doesn’t cause violence in the behavior and doesn’t take the person out of control and doesn’t make him dangerous for the society. Alcohol causes much more aggressive and violent behavior than marijuana.

Legalization of marijuana will decrees the use of alcohol and tobacco which are medically proved to be more harmful for health. Money spent on persecution of marijuana consumption will be saved and the government will get extra money for the selling of marijuana officially.

Legalization can make drugs less attractive to the teenagers and other suggestible  groups of the society as they once legalized they will lose their attractiveness. “Latest psychological, criminological and sociological researches prove that that drug use does not directly cause criminal behavior, but the same circumstances that might lead a person to begin committing crimes may also contribute to the development of drug habits” (Innes, 1988). Specialists say that legalization of marijuana will cause the decrease of use of it because the inertest to the drug legalized will be lost. They count on the Dutch model in this question. Used in medical purposes marijuana can be viewed not as drug but as a medicine and if it can relieve suffering of the people so it should be used in this way.



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