A Gateway to a New Beginning

America has taken a new stand over the last couple of years on the issue of whether marijuana should or shouldn't be legal to use for recreational use. It's been a controversial issue and has now been legalized for recreational use in nine states and medical marijuana is now legal in thirty one states. Colorado and Washington were the first two states to legalize marijuana and since then it's become a much more popular topic and is something that I weekly hear discussed about in lectures, the news, and even just daily conversation. Marijuana has been found to be very effective in helping people who deal with chronic pain, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and has even been proven to be a fantastic muscle relaxant. One may argue that marijuana should only be legalized for those who are using it for medicinal purposes only, but I couldn't disagree more. Legalizing marijuana would be able to significantly reduce the harm amongst the people who currently go out of their way to buy and use it illegally and would cut down on the number of people that serve time each year for a possession of the substance. Legalization of the substance could lead to a huge upswing in our economy and could create many jobs for people all over the country. A group in Nevada reports that just in their state it could provide up to 41,000 jobs and bring in about $1.7 billion over the next 10 years. Cleaning up the streets and bringing in money for our economy sound like some great editions for our country. I think it's time that we stop looking at marijuana as the so called "gateway drug" that I have heard it mentioned as for the majority of my life, and start looking at it's legalization as something that can provide many benefits for our country. I would like to see all 50 states adopt this law in the next couple of years so that it's benefits can be used for all and not just those who currently live in the states where it's already legalized. With the passing of this law it would provide every single American of age to be able to use it in any which way they would like to and there could be any number of ways to make sure that there are measures put into place so that it's use is regulated.