Most Americans value freedoms and liberties such as those protected in the United States Constitution. Those freedoms and liberties are violated when governments prevent access to drugs, which is why legalization may eventually happen on a state-by-state basis. Marijuana has promising applications in health care, which is why states like California have recently permitted the sale and distribution of the drug to patients with prescriptions. The trend is spreading, and several other states also permit marijuana to be used for medical purposes. As more and more states follow suit, drugs will be effectively decriminalized. Law enforcement can divert its attention to violent crime, leaving ordinary citizens alone and leaving addicts in the care of trained...

Consumers will purchase their pot from licensed dealers who they can trust, who carefully cultivate their strains to suit certain medical conditions, and who do not use chemical pesticides or any poison to lace their finished product. Researchers can better understand the addictive brain as well as the brain that benefits from the occasional high.
Works Cited

Cermak, Timmen L. Marijuana: What's a Parent to Believe? Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2003.

Gerber, Rudolph J. Legalizing Marijuana: Drug Policy Reform and Prohibition Politics. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004.

Jones, Paul and Mortin, John. Marijuana: Early Experiences with Four States' Laws that Allow Use for Medical Purposes. United States General Accounting Office, 2002.

Kleiman, Mark. Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control. Greenwood Press, 1989.

Rosenthal, Ed and Kubby, Steve. Why Marijuana Should Be Legal. Thunder's Mouth Press, 1996.

Smith, Sandra Lee. Marijuana. Center City, MN: Rosen, 1995.