“Some of my happiest hours have been spent on my back porch, smoking hemp and watching as far as the eye can see. » (Thomas Jefferson, quoted in Goodreads). Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founding fathers, was among thirteen other U.S. presidents, including Barack Obama, who admitted to smoking marijuana. Yet marijuana is known by many closeted people as a harmful drug that should remain illegal because of its allegedly precarious influence. Many people are misinformed about this plant and its side effects. Marijuana is a greenish-gray mixture of dried, shredded buds of the Cannabis Sativa plant (drugabuse.gov), with countless medical values ​​that could help fight disease, but some strongly support the outdated idea that the herb should remain illegal. . Cannabis should be legalized in the United States not only for medical purposes, but also for recreational use by adults over the age of eighteen, as this is a failed prohibition that is not not fatal and which is beneficial for medical uses. move forward because it is important for society not to find ourselves in a situation in which a large proportion of people have, at one time or another, broken the law and only a privileged few are punished” ( Barack Obama). This statement about legalizing marijuana in Colorado came from the words of our own president, but he has done nothing to stop this absurd phenomenon. The prohibition of marijuana did not end the use and domestic production of the drug; but on the other hand, it wasted too much money and too many lives. Marijuana is more widely used today than it ever was before it was banned. The government attempted to use cruel criminal sanctions to prevent the use of...... middle of paper...... increasing if marijuana was instead purchased in a store, rather than on the corner from a street where heroin and crack are solicited. This fallacious argument falls apart when we consider legal alcohol, as it is far more likely than cannabis to drive people with a history of addiction to more dangerous drugs. Marijuana is a beneficial, non-toxic herb that is still used today, despite being banned. This medicine is not harmful, addictive or fatal. Marijuana should be available to medical patients and for recreational purposes to those over the age of eighteen. Marijuana should be treated like alcohol and tobacco, and the user's right to choose to use these recreational drugs should be respected. After all, America is founded on a society built on individual rights and free choice, so marijuana should be one of those choices..