Marijuana Argumentative Essay Example

I want you to picture Marijuana. What do you think of when you see it? Maybe an addictive drug? Well, I believe that marijuana has a bad reputation. Marijuana helps our economy, has many medical benefits, and DUIs decreased where marijuana is legal.

Marijuana boosts our economy in ways you wouldn’t expect. Many industries, such as tourism, banking, food, real estate, construction, transportation, and education all benefit from the marijuana industry. According to Alan Pyke, “For every $1.00 spent in the marijuana industry, between $2.13 and $2.40 in economic activity is generated.” Legalized marijuana generated $7,200,000,000 worth of economic activity in 2016. Not to mention, millions of dollars in federal taxes are being paid every year by marijuana businesses.

Another reason medical marijuana is rising in popularity is its health benefits. Marijuana helps treat chronic pain, alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, social anxiety, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy. These are just some reasons why marijuana is used to treat medical patients. And as I stated before, this money that people spend on marijuana for medical reasons goes back into the economy to help it.

Driving under the influence, or DUIs and deaths on the road don’t increase after marijuana is legalized, in some cases they decrease. According to Ronnie Cohen, “Traffic deaths dropped 11% on average in states that legalized medical marijuana.” There is obviously something going on for those numbers to be showing those results. Maybe marijuana isn’t as bad as people say it is. 

Many people argue that they also have health risks. This is in fact true. Medical marijuana isn’t perfect. Some health risks include testicular cancer, respiratory disease, and mental health issues. However, the good does outweigh the bad.

Most people like to portray marijuana as some ominous threat sweeping over our nation, but in fact it is the opposite. I believe the media likes to portray marijuana in a way that makes it seem bad. In fact, it helps our economy, has many health benefits, and in some cases can decrease DUIs and traffic deaths.