Stephen Pokowitz

12/10/14
Block 2
Coach McGraw

The debate over whether marijuana should be legalized has raged on for
decades. While the majority (52%) of the public supports the legalization of
marijuana, state governments are hesitant to legalize them, and for good reason.
The state of Georgia should not legalize the use of marijuana. Marijuana should not
be legalized because it is bad for your health, causes thousands of accidents every
year, and prevents you from being able to work effectively. The only way to stop
these adverse effects from happening in society is to keep the ban on marijuana.
While some might argue that the government shouldnt have the power to
regulate peoples lives, the physical effects of marijuana are too dangerous and it is
better to have it regulated. Marijuana can cause heart attacks, psychotic reactions,
and addiction to the drug. It is a gateway drug that leads to other drugs that also
can adversely affect your health. It can cause the user to become depressed and
sleepy and long-term use has been shown to cause schizophrenia. It is the
governments job to look out for our well-being and the only way that can happen is
to keep the ban of marijuana.
The use of Marijuana has led to triple the number of car crashes in the past
three decades causing tons of deaths in the process. Marijuana users dont have a
blood test ready so they cannot tell when too much is too much. There is no way to

quantify how marijuana you have smoked or taken in your body. Any given
Saturday night twelve percent of teens tested positive for alcohol and six percent
for marijuana, which means that almost one in every ten teens driving are under
the influence of marijuana, which is extremely dangerous for society.
Marijuana has been proven to cause a lack of motivation and depression in
users. This combined with the mellow attitude most users who are high experience
means that they cannot perform at a high level in society. The negative effects on
memory, attention, and learning can last for days or weeks after using. People who
smoke daily are at a reduced intellectual capacity most or all of the time. It can drop
the IQ of a person between four and six points and also leads to lower grades and
higher drop-out rates in school. Several studies and shown that marijuana use can
lead to more tardiness, absences, workers compensation claims, accidents and job
turnover. A study of postal workers found that workers who tested positive for
marijuana on a drug test had 55 percent more industrial accidents, 85 percent more
injuries, and a 75-percent increase in absenteeism compared to their peers who
tested negative. These decreases in effectiveness can lead to large consequences
for society as a whole. If teen drug use starts to rise it can cause more addicted to
marijuana which leads to all of the adverse side effects listed above including
decreased productivity and more accidents.
In conclusion, though some critics might advocate for the legalization of
marijuana on the grounds that it violates individual liberties and helps put the
cartels out of business, (a stance taken by many libertarian thinkers) the side
effects that we feel in everyday society are much worse, in Georgia especially we
dont even feel the effects of the cartels and the state as a whole is against
legalization. Marijuana has shown to cause many health related problems among

users, a dramatic increase in car accidents and fatalities, and a severe drop off in
productivity and accidents in the workplace.

Works Cited
Frum, David. "Don't Go to Pot: The Case Against the Legalization of Marijuana."
Commentary 137.4
(2014): 23+. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.
Motel, Seth. "6 Facts about Marijuana." Pew Research Center RSS. N.p., 05 Nov.
2014. Web. 08 Dec.
2014.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. "Marijuana Use Is Harmful." Teens at Risk. Ed.
Stephen P. Thompson.
Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. Opposing Viewpoints. Rpt. from "Research
Reports: Marijuana
Abuse." 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.