While reading the blog post “Marijuana Should Not Be Legalized - Drug Education Is No Solution” I disagreed with many arguments. To begin with I do believe that Marijuana can have negative effects in specific situations as it does affect concentration and decision making, however, I do not believe the statistics on car accidents caused by it is not a reasonable justification to ban it completely. There are many other ways to control this such as the campaigns made against drinking and driving.
Keeping marijuana illegal causes problems from the very beginning of the production till the end during its distribution. In many countries where marijuana is illegally planted and sold to distributors in america there are many people, including children, involved risking their lives as they are put in dangerous situations. By keeping it illegal the contraband will continue to exist directly affecting the lives of families in these countries ( as well as families in our country), and even encourage the process to continue the way it is. Prohibiting it will not reduce the number of consumers, it will however make it harder and more dangerous to acquire putting users in a situation of potential risk. By having it as an official product the control and regulation of what is being sold would allow the consumer to know what he or she is using specifically.
Another problem that is sometimes unspoken of is amount of people, mainly people of color, sent to prison because they have it on them or are involved in selling. By legalizing it there would be more jobs in the industry that are safe and legitimate lowering drastically the number of convicts associated with it and allowing users to legally carry it.
The war on drugs has been going on for far too long and essentially has not brought positive results, there is a lot of money going to it and no significant difference. There should be a government initiative of accurately educating the people on the drug and its effects on the body. More and more studies are being made as it is becoming a billion dollar industry. The taxes that would be collected from it can be used to instruct the population and so much more. As many negatives marijuana may seem to have, in my opinion, they are not nearly enough to justify prohibiting it considering the negatives that keeping it illegal result in. With the right amount of information and regulation people should be allowed to make the decision for themselves.