convince me that marijuana should be legal.

[xNonox]

I think it should be illegal (and I have arguments for both sides: legal/illegal) because of the harm it causes to kids under the age of 21. It can have major impacts to your health under 18-21 years old. It's much easier for kids to get alcohol over marijuana. Yes, it's quite simple to acquire both of them at a young age, but most parents keep alcohol stored in a cabinet, or the fridge and they do nothing to keep their kids away from it. First of all, I'm 16 and I have tried alcohol. I've never tried marijuana. My parents don't smoke it, I think, and if they do they keep it hidden away. I shouldn't have tried alcohol but it's so tempting just sitting there. It is a problem with parents first and foremost, but we're not going to fix that anytime soon. I've heard kids at school say "I'll give my kids weed when they're 15" which brings me to my second point. Stupidity. It can seriously, "scientifically", make you less intelligent if you're under 18. It's also a driving issue. You should NEVER drive under the influence of anything, or ever smoke weed in public. Personally, if you do either of those things, I think you're kind of an asshole. But people do it and they can be harming others and/or polluting the air with something other people choose not to do. Marijuana is also addictive (just like everything else, but a drug like this can seriously be bad for your health, because just a little too much can be going overboard at times)

There are still many reasons why it should be legal as well. Yes, technically you aren't hurting anyone. As long as you're not driving or operating machinery (But people will do that anyway). And it's not technically harmful to the individual in any seriously major ways. I could say "it's healthier than alcohol" but the only reason alcohol is still legal is because of all the crime it caused when prohibition happened. This is NOT the same thing happening with marijuana. Prohibition was much more violent and a much larger population joined in on it. The market for marijuana is quite largely populated by "teenagers being edgy", who could eventually grow out of this phase. On a personal level, the 'edgy' teens that do it in my school, are generally not the ones who do well on, anything really. I'm generally concerned, to be honest, it's really all they talk about, and it seems to have "consumed" their lives. They have less of a personality. I don't see many of them going far in life, unless they're selling weed (which most already do), which is really my biggest convincer that weed should be legal. Most people who sell it do NOT want it to be legal. They would make NO money. I know it sounds harsh to wish that upon someone, but I do really believe that if you want to smoke marijuana, you should be responsible. The dealers are not responsible at all, because they make very, very, large amounts of money doing almost nothing... which is kind of a problem in my eyes, it sort of makes you delusional about the "real world".

You should still form your own opinion, nobody here should "convince" you. That is, if you even really care. Sometimes it's best just to avoid stuff like this all together. Smoking weed has positive benefits, and negative benefits. Just like every thing in the universe. It's not some miracle, it's not magic, it's not the second coming of jesus christ, it's a drug.