.
According to Dr. Tashkin "habitual use of marijuana alone does not appear to lead to significant abnormalities in lung function studies do not suggest an increased risk of either lung or upper airway cancer overall, the risks of pulmonary complications of regular use of marijuana appear to be relatively small and far lower than those of tobacco smoking " (Targeted News Service, 2013, par. 5). Dr. Ware concluded "cannabis smoking is not equivalent to tobacco smoking in terms of respiratory risk; in fact, there is even a suggestion that at lower doses cannabis may be protective for both conditions " (Targeted News Service, 2013, par. 6). These studies show that the typical belief in smoking marijuana can be just as unhealthy and deadly as tobacco is invalid. If Americans have the right to choose to consume dangerous and mind altering drugs like tobacco and alcohol responsibly or not based on laws passed by the American government, then the American people should have the right to smoke marijuana, if they want to or not. After all it has been proven that alcohol and tobacco both have far more dangerous health risk and side effects, than marijuana. .
The American people and the federal government are feeling the sting of an economic down fall. Nature has provided a way for the federal government to stop the stinging, legalizing marijuana, its side effect; saving and creating revenue. The federal government spends every year roughly 15 billion dollars, averaging $500 a second to support a war on drugs that is mainly targeting the Marijuana consumer (Miron & Waldock, 2010). According to drug war facts there are an estimated 200 million drug users worldwide and 162 million of them use marijuana recreationally (Drug Sense, 2013). Now think about the money the government would save on the war on drugs if they eliminated marijuana from the equation. Not to mention how much in tax revenue would be gained if marijuana was legalized and taxed.
