The question of legalizing pot has been an argued issue for a while, running through a variety of issues in order to keep it illegal or to legalize it. In order to make a decision like that you need to first know a few things about marijuana. Is political landscape favoring the legal use of marijuana? Is marijuana good for you? Should marijuana be legalized? Those are a few issues that will be addressed throughout this report. Joel Stein, who writes for Time magazine, did an article entitled, "Is America Going To Pot?- informing that there is new politics of pot. The handout states why there is so much controversy over if marijuana can go legit, and how the people who brought us medical marijuana have set their sights on lifting the ban for everyone. Marijuana has been used as a drug since the beginning of time, yet there are still many mysteries about its health effects on humans. Marijuana, or cannabis sativa, is a preparation of the crushed flowers and buds of female hemp plant. The existence of the plant has been reported as early as 1500-1200 BC. In China, and cannabis has been described as an analgesic as early as 200 AD. Since then, an overwhelming number of studies have attempted to explain the physical and psychological effects of cannabis on humans.
There are two sides in the political landscape for legalizing marijuana those of course favoring it legal availability, and those who oppose it's legalization. The amount of support seems to be rising for those who want pot totally legalized. A TIME/CNN pole found that only 34% want pot to be totally legalized, a percent that has almost doubled since 1986. On the time website itself there is a quick online vote which I looked into, and statistics on it say 87% say it should be legalized, 3% yes but only medically, and 8% say no it shouldn't be, which are completely different and almost opposite of the first pole, it makes it hard to distinguish who to belive.