This method can be used to legalize marijuana but with restrictions on who can obtain it and how much they can get. But there hasn't been an amendment or constitutional statement that denies the right of using marijuana, just the law. .
The federal government cannot retain our rights as so stated in the 10th amendment "The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people"(Kieffer, Par3). With that being said federal governments cannot regulate laws drugs but only the states legislatives can. Just like in California where citizens exercise the use of legalized marijuana for medical purposes to help cancer patients. The war on drugs has had a dramatic use when it comes in for the cost of war starting in 1971 when president Nixon went without congress approval to declare war on drugs on July 17, 1971 (Kieffer, Par11). Kieffer assures this later led to the expense of $2.5 billion to this day fighting the war against drugs which is unconstitutional because in Article I section 8 of the constitution it gives only the congress the power to declare war, not the president (Kieffer, Par12).
One issue with legalizing marijuana is controlling who can purchase the drug and keep it out of hands of adolescences. In David Sheffs article "Marijuana should be legalized, but" he talks about the changes in the brain of children quoting that it "Causes structural and functional changes in the developing brains of adolescents, by stunting communication between brain regions, it impairs high-level thinking"(Sheff, line3). With the drug harming the brain of young minds that can lead to later damage and trigger mental illnesses like schizophrenia. Sheff also opposes the idea that marijuana can trigger depression but comes to questioning if it is just depressed people who smoke marijuana (Sheff, line19).
