People with Addition Getting the Help

There are so many other success stories out there, just like the ones of Diaz and Graham. With all the positive benefits being seen by users and scientists, why wouldn’t states at least offer the drug as an option for medication? More and more states are legalizing marijuana, both medically and recreationally, but for those who haven’t, they’re only causing themselves more expenses that could be eliminated by legalization. The list of costs for keeping up with prohibiting the drug goes on and on. First off you have the court time and police time used up by keeping up with the drug laws. In addition to that, the prisons are fuller and the crime rates are higher.

When the state doesn’t have to spend as much tax money on arresting and imprisoning users, you have more available money to be used on a more important issue. One last lowered cost is the cost of health services and state provided welfare programs. Not only by legalizing the drug do you reduce or eliminate a lot of costs but you also get the income made by stores who sell the drug. So why do states keep wasting all their money on a lost cause? This image shows that the price to keep marijuana legal is much higher than the cost of legalizing it medically or recreationally. If marijuana is legalized, it is proven that addiction and drug use decreases, especially in teens. An example of this is in Portugal, where they legalized all drugs for adults. Since the legalization, there has been a decrease in drug use and addiction in the youth. They also found that people, in general, tend to be less likely to be addicted to drugs when the government isn’t forcing them to avoid drugs. Clare Wilson talks similarly about how legalizing the drug decreases the number of youth users.

With legalization often comes a minimum age limit making it harder for teens to get their hands on the drug. For all of those who are worried about legalization because they don’t think more people should be taking and abusing the drug, they have no reason to worry because legalization has proved to do just the opposite. For those who are going through addiction and need help, legalizing the drug increases the chances that they’ll get the help they need or have the help available. From 1998 to 2008, the number of drug users getting treatment jumped 62% even though the number of people using drugs didn’t change at all. So why were more people finally getting help? It’s because the people getting the help were in places where the drug was legalized.

When you eliminate the fear of getting arrested for using the drug, people are more likely to seek help. Also in places where the drug is legalized, states make more places to get help available. Legalizing marijuana can lead to those who desperately need help with addiction to have less fear when they get the help that might save them from worse consequences later. One last advantage to legalizing marijuana is when it is sold publicly, the drug contents can be more controlled. Recently, it has been more common for drug dealers to sell laced marijuana, meaning they combine other drugs with the weed without informing their customers. One of the most common chemicals mixed in is rat poison, which is deadly and very dangerous. An article by Time in 2018 writes that in Illinois, laced marijuana has killed three people already. In addition to the deaths, there have been more than 100 cases of severe bleeding in five states including Illinois. These patients often face symptoms including “coughing up blood, blood in the urine, severe bloody noses, bleeding gums and internal bleeding” (Tanner).

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