A quick personal story: When I was in high school, one of my classes had a speaker present, and by the end of his presentation, he asks how many people think marijuana should be legal. To my surprise, a decent amount of the students raised their hand, but not to my surprise, most the students who raised their hand, at some period of time, said they smoked at least once in their lifetime. You should take into consideration that this is an opinion article and that you should be at least be halfway into my article before rolling your eyes and going to another website, just because what I say may go against your personal beliefs.
Racist background
According to PBS's Frontline, after the Mexican Revolution in 1910, a lot of people from Mexico started moving to the United States, so it was the "job" of the United States' government to crack down on them down and send them home. Some of the reasons why they did it were because people from Mexico were bringing, among other things, their own cultural beliefs, marijuana for recreational use, customs, food, and language. Although it was already used in the United States for medicinal purposes, cannabis became associated with Mexican immigrants in a prejudicial way, and its name was changed to 'Marijuana'.
In 1989, Bush's War on Drugs was created to encourage everyone from a certain background to be marginalized.
By making marijuana illegal, they could use it as an excuse to arrest them and even send them back to their home country on some occasions. Part of the reason why it was created was because parents from conservative backgrounds wanted harsher drug laws, so their teenage children wouldn't dare to use marijuana.
Cannabis
Did you know cannabis is the same thing as weed or Marijuana?
It is very likely that you did not know. You can blame the United States government for that. The word "marijuana" is similar to the word "marihuana," the word Spanish-speaking countries use to describe cannabis.
According to PBS's Frontline, in the late 19th century, "cannabis became a well-known ingredient in many medicinal products and sold openly in public pharmacies." It is worth noticing that at this moment, the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "has not approved marijuana as a safe and effective drug for any indication," according to the FDA website.
Why should it remain illegal, under federal law?
According to the Colorado Department of Public Health, "possible marijuana exposure has increased from 803 per 100,000 between 2001 and 2009 to 2413 per 100,000 people." Toddlers end up suffering the most, as they see marijuana edibles that look like candy, cookies or brownies laying around the house, and they eat them, according to a CBS News article.
It is well known that cannabis itself is very addictive as it releases dopamine. Many people who try it once, try it again and again until it does not work anymore; afterwards, they find a substance that is stronger and can get a high faster, becoming addicted to it.
It works similar to people who drink or use alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs. I have seen it happen in real life, with friends and acquaintances.
I know many people who become addicted to cannabis at a very young age, and, to my knowledge, none of them recovered. States should still have the right to choose whether to make cannabis legal or not, but instead of focusing on all the financial gain they will receive from taxes on marijuana, the state governments should focus on their people's health and well-being.
