The controversy of legalizing marijuana has been raging for quite a while in
America. From some people pushing it for medical purposes to pott-heads just wanting
to get high legally. Marijuana has been used for years as a popular drug for people who
want to get a high. All this time it has been illegal and now it looks as if the drug may
become legal.
There has been heated debate by many sides giving there opinion in the issue.
These people are not only left wing liberals either. Richard Brookhiser, a National
Review Senior editor is openly supportive of medical marijuana yet extremely
conservative in his writing for National Review (Brookhiser 27). He is for
medical marijuana since he used it in his battle with testicular cancer. He says "I turned
to [marijuana] when I got cancer because marijuana gives healthy people an appetite, and
prevents people who are nauseated from throwing up. "(Brookhiser 27) Cancer
patients are not the only benefactors from the appetite enhancer in marijuana, but so are
any other nauseous people.
Arizona and California have already passed a law allowing marijuana to be used
as a medicinal drug. Fifty Six percent of the California voters voted for this law. "We've
sent a message to Washington," says Dennis Peron. "They've had 25 years of this drug
was, and they've only made things worse." (Simmons 111) The Arizona
proposition garnished an even wider margin of separation between the fore's an against in
a sixty five percent support tally. Ethan Nadelmann insists that " these propositions are
not about legalization or decriminalization. They're about initiating some non radical,
commonsense approaches to drug policy." General Barry McCaffery disagrees saying, "I
don't think this was a medical issue from the start." (Simmons 111) He also
calls the new laws, a "tremendous tragedy."
The federal g...