Purpose: To persuade the audience to support the Legalization of Marijuana

Purpose: To persuade the audience to support the Legalization of Marijuana.

Thesis: Marijuana should be made legal in the United States because of its medical, recreational, and economical benefits.

I. Introduction

A. Attention Getter: Marijuana, we all know what it is, what it does, and how illegal it is. But one thing you probably didn’t know, the average number of deaths per year from cigarettes is 430,000, Alcohol is more than 85,000, caffeine amounts to about 10,000, and pain relievers kill 7,500 per year. Now look at the number of deaths EVER reordered from the use of marijuana, its zero… this is according to the documentary, The Union: The Business behind Getting High.

B. Relevance: As college kids, Marijuana is something we have all had experiences with whether positive or negative. Roughly two thirds of the people surveyed in this classroom have used marijuana before and I think that is an accurate estimate for all college kids. A lot of you believe Marijuana’s uses can be beneficial, but some of you are completely against it and I’m here to change your minds.

C. Credibility: Since the day I first heard of marijuana I’ve been interested in why it is illegal and I’ve done a lot of research on it in the past.

Transition: First I’ll explain to you what marijuana legalization means to me.

II. Body

A. A main reason I think weed should be legalized is the amount of trouble someone could get in for smoking it.

1. Being arrested isn’t fun, going to court isn’t fun, and paying large amounts of money to the court system is without the doubt the worst part, all this for smoking one joint among your friends.

2. It changed the way I felt about marijuana, it was no longer just a drug that can get you high, it was something that could ruin your life. I believe that if not abused, marijuana is something that can really be beneficial to people. Yes it is a drug, but it is also a plant, a plant that causes little harm to your body. Now another thing I think, it is not fair that the government says we can’t smoke weed, it should be a personal choice, a choice that should be made when you’re at least 18, but if you want experience the benefits of marijuana why should anyone stop you?

3. Some people say that individuals who smoke weed get violent and do bad things, this is not true at all, all of you that have ever used Marijuana know that after smoking all you want to do is eat some food, chill on a couch and probably play some video games or watch a funny movie. That’s what Marijuana really does; it makes the stresses of life go away and makes you see everything a little better.

Transition: But that is only my personal opinion of marijuana, now let’s take a look more at what the drug is and why it is illegal.

B. Marijuana is defined in an online brochure titled, Marijuana: Facts for Teens, as a green, brown, or gray mixture of dried, shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the hemp, or cannabis, plant. It goes by many different names—pot, herb, weed, or grass and includes a substance known as THC, this is what produces the high from smoking weed.

1. Some people say marijuana is an addictive drug, on some levels this is true, if you are a person with an addictive personality you can and will get addicted to the feeling of Marijuana. But people with an addictive personality can get addicted to just about anything. Now according to The Union, scientists explain that Marijuana is not addictive; by non-addictive it is meant that the user of marijuana when deprived of the drug will not experience the agonies of withdraws.

2. Marijuana legalization is a big issue in the government today. But to understand why, we need to know why marijuana is illegal in the first place. In the early nineteen hundreds Marijuana was as legal as tobacco, this was because the plant that weed is derived from, Hemp, was used for a variety of different things. For example, the first two documents of the Declaration of Independence were printed on Hemp paper, hemp can also be used for medicines, textiles, food, fuels, and thousands of other items. Hemps potential for an abundance of new products was going to be in direct competition with other sources, and this

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