Legalizing Marijuana

**** My Hyperlink wasn’t working….. http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html

Legalizing of Marijuana is good for some but bad for others.  In my opinion, legalizing of Marijuana should be used for medicinal purposes only.

Why does marijuana need to be legalized? What does legalization of marijuana help? Or does legalization of marijuana show more harm than hurt?

The government has begun the process and marijuana is not legal is 23 states, including the District of Columbia.  Marijuana is used not only for medicinal use; but for recreational use as well. The states that marijuana is legal for recreational use are Washington, Oregon, Colorado, and Alaska. The states that marijuana is legal for medicinal use are California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Montana, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Maine. Also, Alaska, is the only state where marijuana is legally used for medicinal and recreational uses. This is almost half of the states. Legalizing of Marijuana has spread like an epidemic.

Colorado, is one of the main states were marijuana is frequently used. Colorado is a major state that implement recreational usages since 2001. In Colorado, it is legal for recreational usage. In Colorado there are shops with different flavors of marijuana for people to buy. Should marijuana be legalized for recreational and medicinal uses in all 50 states? In Colorado, there have been an increase in DUI, from about 25 to 40 %. In schools, there has been in increase in drug-related arrests by 32%. These arrests have resulted in suspensions and expulsions. From 2011 to 2013, there were numerous results from drug related incidents.  In 2012, about 27 % of college students admitted to smoking marijuana. Also, in 2013, 57% of emergency room visits were from marijuana.

 According to drugabuse.org, in 2009, 376,467 people were involved in marijuana visits to the emergency room. It also states that most of the emergency room visits were of females than of males. The age of marijuana use is between 18 to 20.

In my opinion, I believe marijuana should not be legalizing. What does legalizing marijuana help. It does more help than harm. I believe that it should be used for medicinal purposes only.