Marijuana. Mary Jane. Dope. Pot. Weed. Ganja. The Devil's lettuce. Although now, in 2017, these words have earned more casual use, as opposed to their previous taboo status, and earn less judgment from people.

The big controversy today is if marijuana should be legalized for recreational and medical use. I say, why not?

I do not see why marijuana is any worse for a person than alcohol is. Alcohol is available for recreational use, even though it makes some people violently ill and can even cause death due to alcohol poisoning.

When has anyone died from marijuana? When has a case of "marijuana poisoning" ever occurred?

I also find it ridiculous that people get arrested for smoking a joint. Why should the citizens of this country, supposedly the land of the free, have to spend their hard-earned money to imprison someone who was merely smoking a joint?

The tax money wasted on incarcerating people convicted of marijuana use could be allocated much more resourcefully, and be beneficial to all. In other states where recreational use of marijuana is legal, such as Colorado, they use their tax money originally used to incarcerate marijuana users to improve their public school system and help the homeless.

America has by far the highest number of incarcerated people worldwide. Our extremely overcrowded prisons would decrease in population size if marijuana were legalized, because the large number of people convicted of marijuana use clog the prison system.

Stories have also been circulating about how marijuana could help those with a serious drug addiction. Lately, our country has had a problem with opioid addiction. It has been noticed that those struggling with opioid addiction turn to marijuana to become "clean" from opioids. According to Rolling Stone, 33,000 Americans died in 2015 from an opioid overdose, while zero overdosed on marijuana.

I am confused as to why people think marijuana is so bad. Is it because it is labeled as a drug? Is it because there is not enough research into it? Or is it because it has always been something we have been told not to do? We are told not to drink too much alcohol or to drink alcohol underage, but we do it anyway. I do agree that there does need to be more research into marijuana, but I believe by no means is it considered "the devil's lettuce".

Times are changing and some people really do need the medical benefits of marijuana. On that note, legalize it.