Argumentative Essay On Legalization Of Marijuana

This year in late February, one of my good friends was suddenly fired from her job that she had held for almost two years and previously had no problems with, all because of her use of marijuana. She was excelling with her work and everyone at the company seemed to appreciate her as an employee. Unfortunately, one of her coworkers found out that she habitually smokes marijuana outside of work, and she told the manager. Shortly after, her termination papers were being filled out. It seems unfair that a valuable employee can be terminated from her job out of the blue solely because of the uncovering of her private recreational use of cannabis. She went from shining within the company and doing great to instantly losing a huge part of her life, …show more content…
If anything, legalization will cause a positive, progressive social change among all citizens. As I have gotten older, I have realized just how many people I know who smoke cannabis, including my brother, my boyfriend’s dad, and even one of my managers at work. It seems to be prevalent anywhere, and even the people who do not prefer to smoke themselves are perfectly alright with being around it, or even allow their significant other to use marijuana. It’s not even strange in cities like San Francisco or Santa Cruz, although still currently illegal, to see a person walking down the street or sitting in a park smoking a joint or blunt. According to Jon Gettman, “There were 3,342,000 annual marijuana users in California during 2007, of which 1,949,000 reported marijuana use in the past month”. Clearly, it’s not taboo to smoke marijuana and most citizens would concur that they too smoke themselves or at least know of someone who does. Maintaining the status quo after legalization would not be a difficult task, because it won’t change too much. People who don’t smoke will not necessarily even notice, besides in the form of an improved economy. The most important thing that it will bring, is relief for innocent smokers who are at risk of losing their jobs or going to jail because they use marijuana regularly. With legalization, “Socially, hopefully marijuana won’t be viewed so negatively by everyone in society and the people who choose to do it won’t be looked down upon anymore” (Viodes). If anything, the status quo will improve and society will become even more progressive; people will become more accepting of cannabis and respect for its users will increase as well. Legalization is the best solution because it won’t turn anybody’s world upside down, but rather help change some unnecessary negative stereotypes for marijuana users who