Going Green

With many states already allowing Marijuana to be used for medical purposes and a few letting their citizens smoke recreationally, it is only a matter of time before it is federally accepted. Medical Marijuana has several different positive effects on the American people. Not only will allowing medical marijuana to be sold legally help individuals that need it for medical reasons, but it will help the government financially, and lower crime rates. Maybe this plant that has been considered a drug for so long isn’t as bad as everyone thinks.
People suffering from many different medical conditions can benefit from using medical marijuana. Patients suffering from pain, mental conditions, and other disorders all have positive effects from this drug. Pain is one of most common thing treated by marijuana. Smoking certain types of marijuana can take away a patients pain. This herbal treatment has fewer side effects than the prescriptions that are given out by doctors. Not to mention that they are a lot less addictive. You never hear of someone going through withdrawals from weed or being so addicted to it that it ruins their lives. Patients with mental disorders such as depression or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can have extremely positive effects from using marijuana products. With depression patients a lot of the times they are to down to want to get up and do anything. Some types of marijuana can give them the energy they need to live a normal life. As everyone knows smoking marijuana gives you the so called munchies giving the depression patients an actual appetite. Another mental condition that marijuana helps treat is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. With the wars that America has been through in the past fifty years there is a large percentage of veterans (over 200,000) suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Marijuana helps keep these patients calm in situations that would normally panic in. Many veterans cannot stand to be in crowded places or deal with a lot of pressure. With the help of medical marijuana these veterans can stay calm enough to go to the local market or the mall without being as nervous as they normally are. It will allow them to hold more stable and better paying jobs that they used to not be able to get, because of their mental illness. It also helps with their anger problems allowing them to settle down and have relationships. Medical marijuana is used to treat many different kinds of illnesses including; migraine headaches, glaucoma, and cancer. Even though Marijuana cannot cure the terminal illness that is prescribed for it does allow the patients to finish their lives in peace without most of the side effects of prescribed drugs. With all of the benefits that marijuana gives patients it will be no time before most doctors will be writing prescriptions for it in every state.
Financially legalizing marijuana would be a smart decision for the United States government. With all of the debt that we have accumulated through the years we could use the extra tax money that medical marijuana would provide. Federal governments would be able to place a sales tax and another tax like the one that is placed on alcohol which would slowly eliminate our national debt. State governments would be able to place taxes on it which would help out the local government. These local taxes will give our education programs the money that they need. For the small business owner it would give more opportunities to start new businesses like dispensaries. These local dispensaries give small towns more employment opportunities. If the unemployment rates are lowered there will be more money to circulate in the economy. Marijuana is estimated to be a fifteen to thirty billion dollar industry. Why has the government not seen that we could use that extra money? With the taxes and employment opportunities that will be