Should America Legalize Marijuana Essay Example for Free

Should America Legalize Marijuana Essay I. Introduction A. Attention Getter B. Specific Purpose Statement C. Credibility Statement D. Preview of Main Points (Transition) II. Body (sentences in body should be complete sentences) A. Pro/For 1 1. Supporting Material The United States is currently has over 17 trillion dollars in debt( statistic) 2. Supporting Material According to congress budget office The United States is currently has over 17 trillion dollars in debt. A country accumulates most of their debt in time of war one of the biggest and most expensive war going on right now is the war on drugs the DEA spends x dollars trying to keep marijuana of the streets just think how many more other more serious crimes can be solved if that money was spent elsewhere in the criminal justice department. Another pro of legalizing marijuana is the tax dollars we as a country can get from selling marijuana. Colorado and Washington recently legalized marijuana this year and since January through august just think how many tax dollars we can raise if marijuana was legal throughout the entire United States and that is on top of the money we are saving on from the DEA by not chasing down these pot heads. (Transition) Money and debt is not the only upside to legalizing marijuana there are countless health benefits from the intake of marijuana B. Pro/For 2 1. Supporting Material 2. Supporting Material There is a documentary called weed by Dr. Sanjay Gupta it’s about a 5 year old girl with epilepsy that has over a 100 seizures a week a team of scientist a strain of marijuana that was low in THC(the chemical that gives you that high felling when smoking weed) and high in CBD(a chemical that has numerous health benefits) but instead of letting this 5 year old girl roll up a joint and smoke in they extract the juice from the plant and let her consume it. Almost instantaneously after this treatment this girl went from having over a hundred seizures a week to having 3 or less some weeks she wouldn’t even have any after a year they saw major improvement in the child’s mood and in the child learning ability. (Transition) is there any down sides to this drug you call marijuana? Of course there is there in facts are a lot of reasons why we shouldn’t legalize the drug. We talk about how marijuana has health benefits now let’s talk about the negative side effects. D. Con/Against 1 1. Supporting Material 2. Supporting Material The most common side effect of marijuana is short term memory lose this is a bad thing in many ways especially if you in an unsafe environment like a car. Marijuana also affects brain development, and when it is used heavily by young people. Marijuana smoke is an irritant to the lungs, and frequent marijuana smokers can have many of the same respiratory problems experienced by tobacco smokers, such as daily cough. Marijuana is also been know to lead to depression and suicide in frequent users. (Transition) as now you know marijuana has a few negative health effects of marijuana but they is one more thing you need to conceder one more thing the Gateway theory. E. Con/Against 2 1. Supporting Material 2. Supporting Material Gateway theory states that â€Å"use of certain drugs may lead to an increased risk in the use of other drugs and involvement in criminal behavior.† Smoking a joint might not seem that bad after looking at the positive and negative health effects but before you light up look up the health effects of all the hard drugs out there because no one wakes up and says I’m going to shoot up with 10 mailgrams of heroin today all drug addicts start somewhere and more times than not it starts with tobacco, alcohol and marijuana (Transition) In conclusion. III. Conclusion A. Summary of Main Points B. Restate Purpose C. Reference to Attention-Getter