Legalization of Marijuana

Attention getter: Do you suffer from pain, migraines, eating disorders or other sicknesses? If so, you may want to consider marijuana as a treatment.

Central Idea: Marijuana should be legalized for medicinal purposes.

Significance to the audience: This is important to all of use because many of us are misinformed about marijuana and are unaware of its beneficial properties.

Preview of main points: Today I will tell you about why marijuana should be legalized.

Body:

I. What exactly is marijuana?

A) Marijuana is a leafy plant which grows wild in many of the tropic and temperate areas of the world.

1) It is also cultivated both indoors and out for the production of its flowering tops.

2) The most commonly used form of cannabis are the leaves and flowering tops which may be either smoked or eaten

3) It also comes in a more concentrated resinous form called hashish, and as a sticky black liquid called hash oil.

B) There are many beneficial properties to marijuana.

1) The male part of the plant is known as hemp and has no medicinal purposes.

A) It has been successfully utilized to make a thousands of diverse, environmentally friendly products like textiles, paper, oil, rope and canvas.

2) The female plant is enriched with a psychoactive chemical called THC or tetrahydrocannabinol.

A) When inhaled, THC induces a euphoric and sedate effect.

B) THC is beneficial for patients with AIDS wasting syndrome, arthritis, brain injury related with strokes, multiple sclerosis, nausea associated with cancer chemotherapy, anti-tumor effects, asthma, epilepsy, glaucoma, schizophrenia, migraine, eating disorders, and general pain.

Transition: Now that I've informed you about what marijuana is and its beneficial purposes, I will now discuss about why marijuana should be legalized.

II. Marijuana should be legalized for many reasons.

A) Prohibition of marijuana must be weighed against the loss of personal freedom. 1) Countries have a responsibility to respect individual free will and the right of self-determination

B) Legal prohibition does not stop consumers from consuming drugs, it does not stop trafficants from producing and selling it.

1) The price of the final product increases to abnormally high values because of the black market status.

2) With the effects of drug addiction causes users to commit crimes in order to fund their addiction.

C) Critics of the War on Drugs support the partial or complete decriminalization of illegal drugs, combined with a system of regulation, such as the case with alcohol and prescription drugs.

1) By providing legal supplies of currently illegal drugs the price will fall, leading to a collapse in the illegal drug industry, and a reduction in crimes committed by both drug suppliers and users.

D) It is not worthwhile for a law to forbid people from willingly exposing their own bodies to harm by using drugs, any more than by overeating.

1) Obesity is a national epidemic, killing millions every year, but the government has no right to regulate how much citizens eat.

2) Drug users exercise free will when they chose to use drugs

F) Legalization would reduce health care costs by reducing the probability of overdoses and accidental ingestion of an unintended drug through standardization of drug purity by state-sponsored production and sale.

1) Legalization of drugs would work to increase liability on producers forcing health standards.

I) Legalization would allow greater regulation.

1) Currently legal drugs contain a listing of all active and inactive ingredients. illegal drugs could be sold legally with ingredients lists, warnings and purity levels clearly marked.

J) Recreational drug has no clear and obvious harmful effect on anyone besides the user who chooses to accept those risks.

1) The War on Drugs places non-users' friends and loved ones in jail, therefore causing nothing but harm.

K) Legalization of marijuana could reduce our national debt.

1) A tax of $1 per joint could yield 1.0 billion dollars.

L) Countries who have experimented with legalization have had positive