Sunday, November 10, 2013

Why is marijuana illegal and alcohol is not?


Considering the statics we discussed in class, I was curious to find opinions to why marijuana was illegal and alcohol is not. For example, Dr. Davis states there is no known cases of marijuana “intoxication”, or more commonly referred to as “overdose”, yet, many people die of alcohol intoxication everyday. As I researched opinions to why marijuana is illegal, I stumbled upon an article written by Tom Head under the “Civil Liberties” section. He narrowed it down 7 reasons, 3 to which I found valid. First he stated that it is “perceived as addictive” meaning it has a high potential for abuse.  This argument can be made for alcohol as well. Secondly he said, “It has no accepted medical use.” He states that medical use of marijuana is still a huge controversy and therefore is not nationally recognized as a “medical drug”. His third reason was that “it has been historically linked with narcotics, such as heroin.” Although marijuana is not a narcotic, it was originally associated with other drugs like morphine and heroin. Although alcohol is not associated with any hard drugs, like morphine and heroin, it causes the most harm compared to all other drugs. So why is alcohol not illegal? There is no specific answer. Alcohol has been around since the beginning of time and therefore it would be very hard to make it illegal.

 

 Sources:


Sarah F M


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