To be rather blunt, my name is Anthony Matthews. I am from Abilene, TX & I am a business major. I run my own business & have been the sole proprietor of iGoRepair for almost 3 years.
In Abilene, many from our high schools were below or near the poverty level, so this means that marijuana usage was quite prominent in the area. Access to marijuana was easy & it could arrive to you faster than that Pizza Hut order you placed for your munchies. Mostly everyone at my school has experimented with marijuana at least once in their lifetime, because that’s just “what you did” at parties, instead of drinking. I personally have even experimented with it only once in my life & it was sophomore year. My observation of it was that, it was a very calming substance that made you want to just lay down, listen to some relaxing music, & reflect upon your life. I believe marijuana should be fully legalized because why not?
Many will tell you that it is a drug for “losers” or “lowlifes”, but most of the Top 25 in our graduating class had done it. 6 of them going to UT, 2 to Baylor, 3 to Tech, 1 to OU, even 1 to Columbia, and much more! In fact some of the most successful people that you look up to everyday have smoked it such as: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, George Bush, Bill Gates, & the list goes on & on. See the following link for a more extensive list: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/18/most-famous-marijuana-users_n_5160073.html
It is much more safer than Alcohol. Although it does impair your mind for a couple hours, your brain is actually never harmed. You don’t “lose brain cells”. In fact, I have a personal friend who actually smokes it to calm down her seizures. She had 4 a day almost all the time. She was harming herself more by taking prescription pills, so one day she decided to try out marijuana (illegally, of course, since we live in Texas..). She ended up only having 1 to even 0 seizures a day! This was quite a relief seeing the work be done, because she used to have seizures in class and that was very scary. However, after she started smoking, it was nice not having to be worried in my Pre-AP Pre-Cal class.
I could go on & on about why it should be legalized, but we were limited to around 400 words. However, as the class goes by, I encourage you all to have an open-mind about the topic of marijuana. It’s much safer alternative to alcohol & cigarettes, hemp is a much stronger fabric than cotton & polyester, it has many medical benefits, it costs billions of taxpayer dollars on the failed “war on drugs”, & much more. The time has come for marijuana legalization & it would be an overall better idea, than illegalization. The time is now, yes we cannabis!!