Marijuana is said to be a gateway drug and is looked down upon by society as a whole. However there are some good things which we could gain from marijuana. In colonial America, Hemp, which is a type of marijuana, was raised by both Jefferson and Washington as a big cash crop. If marijuana was to be legalized for both smoking and the use of hemp crime would be reduced, we will be able to grow hemp to make clothes and paper, and also another source of income and jobs will be available for those who need them.
An argument against the legalization of marijuana says "Drug use causes serious problems in society: accidents, lost productivity on the job, and wrecked families." Some say that legalizing marijuana will make things worse, and others say these things are only happening because marijuana is illegal. Marijuana actually is less impairing on you perception than alcohol. A study by the British Transport researchers says that "One glass of wine will impair your driving more than smoking a joint, And under certain test conditions, the complex way alcohol and cannabis combine to affect driving behavior suggests that someone who has taken both may drive less recklessly than a person who is simply drunk." .
If marijuana were legal we would be cutting back on crime. We would do this because by making the drug legal the price of pot would drop because it can be grown so easily. With this drop in price drug dealers would be out of business because they wouldn't be able to make any money off of marijuana anymore. The drug dealers would also have hard time making money on harder drugs because the business that they got before would decrease.
Another argument says nearly all heroin users were initially marijuana smokers. In 1988, a National Institute on Drug Abuse survey found that marijuana smokers are thirty times more likely to use cocaine than those who've never smoked it. Other research confirms a strong correlation between marijuana use and the use of cocaine, heroin and the hallucinogens.
