Hello, my name is Sabrina Villanueva. Ever since I was little my mom would tell me how bad smoking marijuana was and her reason was “just because.” She said if she ever caught me high she’d throw a chancla at me, Ha! I’ll have you know she told me this my first day of kindergarten! I kid you not my mom even went to the extent of bringing home a drug test when I was in middle school because I came back from a long day of basketball practice “dazed and confused.” Apparently being exhausted was the new high. Being from Brownsville, TX, it is not hard to come upon marijuana, but I would never go against my mother’s word even though I disagree that marijuana is bad “just because.”

I personally would not use marijuana because I choose not to, but that does not mean that I think it is bad or shouldn’t be legalized. I say that marijuana should definitely be legal. I mean, how can it be any worse than alcohol or prescribed narcotics?

Since I a kid I was persuaded to believe that people that did smoke marijuana were dumb. But why? That’s like saying everyone that has taken a sip of beer was a drunk. As I have grown older, my eyes have opened up to realize that there are more benefits of legalizing marijuana than if it weren’t. And that’s the truth, it is literally the blunt truth!

I can go on and on about marijuana and it’s benefits but I’m sure you have heard it all before.

But I will tell you why I think marijuana should be legalized. There’s always that one pot head in your family that says marijuana makes them feel good and what not. My cousin is one of them. He always “wakes and bakes” or so I’ve been told. It wasn’t until recently that weed actually helped him with his Bell’s palsy. Many people with Bell’s palsy take months to recover their facial muscles back to normal but for my cousin, it only took two weeks thanks to weed.

Scientists from the University of Bonn agree that “endocannabinoids seem to play an important role in regulating inflammation processes” and therefore speed up Bell’s palsy recovery.

If marijuana were to be legal, it would be in the hands of the holder to decide what to do with it. Legalizing it would not mean you would have to go out and start smoking a joint because it’s legal. Now, my mom may not like my stance on the subject, but I’m sure she’ll see my point of view when marijuana is legalized.