Freedom to choose

“If people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny”
-Thomas Jefferson

      The legalization of marijuana would greatly influence this country in a good way. If marijuana was legal then the government would put a small tax on it which would help our country.  But, it should only be legal for people who would use it responsibly on their own property or a friend’s property who didn’t mind.  You would not be allowed to be inebriated in public, except at festivals.  There would also be shop where you could purchase it and use it like in Amsterdam.          
         
      More people are killed while driving drunk than when high.  Nobody has smoked themselves to death, but they’ve drank themselves to death. Yet we regulate one while prohibiting the other.  That’s discrimination, and this is supposed to be a country of equality.  More than 40% of all high school students smoke marijuana or habitually use it.
         If you look back into our country’s history you’ll see that at one point in time alcohol was banned, crime rates went up and they removed the amendment from the constitution that banned it.  There are over 9 billion marijuana plants grown in the United States, the growers get approximately 15 billion dollars in the sale of this plant. This makes marijuana the biggest cash crop in America; grossing more money than wheat, corn and tobacco combined.
         
        This plant is not dangerous, it is found naturally on this planet; so isn’t it our natural right to use it as we see fit?  How come we are not allowed to use a natural resource, yet the government can use up our money and other resources as they please?  Are we not allowed to choose what we want in our bodies?  Should we really allow them to control us to that extent?  There was a group of people who tried to eradicate an entire race; they started this process by controlling where they could go and what they could do, and by where they lived.  This was the fascist Nazi party. Our country seems to be controlling us more than they need to. We are responsible free-minded individuals who can think for themselves.
         
          The media and the government portray marijuana users as bad people, as people who kill others and as people who are dumb.  We should not be discriminated against because we smoke a harmless flower.
         
        How many times have you heard or read about a man getting drunk and beating his wife, or committing some other heinous crime? Now think about how many times you’ve heard or read about someone smoking weed and attacking someone.  Most of the time when people use marijuana they just sit around and watch TV, play games, or sit around and talk with people.  We don’t harm anyone. We should have the right to choose what we want to do as long as we don’t harm anyone.
         
        In India Gandhi used civil disobedience in order to gain freedom from Britain.  This prohibition of a flower is a ridiculous waste of money, and it isn’t even working because people are still doing it and they’re going to keep doing it.
         
      All I’m saying is let us have our freedom, which is guaranteed to us in the constitution… the freedoms that our ancestors fought for to break away from Britain.

                                      Live a Little
                                  Give it a chance.