Blog Stage 6; Comment on a Colleagues Work 1

Gabrielle wrote her blog stage 5 on the legalization of...marijuana. Often, many people write claims on their blogs that they do not care to support with evidence and I think that the contrary is very well done in this article. I agree entirely that marijuana should be legalized to help our state’s and nation’s economic growth. To continue to support our claims on why the plant should be legalized nationwide, in 2013 a A Gallup poll released revealing that for the first time in history, Americans are more in favor of legalizing marijuana than criminalizing it. Now, 58 percent of Americans are in favor allowing the plant to be legal. Prohibition doesn’t control the use of marijuana in the United States. States under prohibition gain nothing from it. The states spend their money, time, and resources enforcing it to no end. The states that have legalized marijuana have already acquired over $200 million in combined tax revenue compared to the other 46 states. The states are saving money in the police departments, courts, other essential agencies that are bothered with marijuana prosecutions.  

So many people may think having a large amount of THC in your body will lead to death, but that isn’t possible. Since marijuana has been around, not one single account of death from overdose of marijuana has been recorded or accounted for. Meanwhile in 2010, about 39,000 people died from drug overdoses. Sixty percent of those overdoses were related to prescription drugs. In that same year about 26,000 people died from alcohol related causes. So if cigarettes and alcohol are a higher health risk, then why isn’t marijuana legal as well?

In this article, you mention that one of the United State’s biggest national issues is the lack of jobs available in our country. I 100% agree that we would benefit economically from the increase in demand of labor and the marijuana industry in itself. If 81,000 new jobs have been created in california alone, there is no telling how much the U.S could flourish if all states legalized it for medical and recreational usage.