To preface this article, I would like to say that I have never smoked marijuana. I mention this not because I do not want people to think I do because of this article but because I do not want people to think there is a bias I have or an agenda I am trying to push by writing this.

Now that’s out of the way, I am just going to come out and say it. Marijuana should be legalized. Immediately.

To start, let’s look at marijuana’s current classification by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug along with heroin, LSD, and ecstasy. These drugs have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse” and are illegal to manufacture, distribute, or possess with intent to manufacture or distribute.

To compare the danger of these schedule 1 drugs, let’s examine the amount of deaths and/or overdoses they are responsible for. Marijuana: 0. Heroin: ~11,000 (in 2014). Clearly, one is much, much worse than the other. I am not arguing that both heroin and marijuana be reclassified, I am only suggesting that for marijuana. Though these numbers are staggering, I am not sure they are coming across as strongly as they should. For perspective, you should know that heroin deaths have are now killing more people than traffic accidents in New Hampshire. Read that sentence again and let it sink in.

I will reiterate that I am not arguing against the classification of heroin, I am simply demonstrating how unsubstantiated marijuana’s classification of a schedule 1 drug is. If I have not convinced you, let’s look at other drug classifications. Several opioids, other than heroin, like oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl are classified as schedule 2 drugs. Drugs in this class pose a high potential for abuse and psychological or physical dependence. In 2014 alone, these and other opioids (not including heroin) accounted for nearly 19,000 overdose deaths. No one has ever died from an overdose of marijuana.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, “but there are no medical benefits to marijuana so why legalize it?” Well, there are actually many medical benefits to marijuana. Here is a list of a couple: marijuana can treat glaucoma, reverse carcinogenic effects of tobacco, help control epileptic seizures, a chemical in marijuana can sometimes stop cancer from spreading, decrease anxiety, THC (the effective ingredient in marijuana) slows the progression of Alzheimer’s, decrease the pain of MS, help veterans suffering with PTSD, and reduce the pain and nausea from chemotherapy. On top of all of these benefits, medical marijuana could potentially replace addictive drugs like Vicodin, Xanax, Adderall, Ambien, and Zoloft.

These would all be reasons to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, which twenty-five states, including New Hampshire have already done. So, maybe medical marijuana should be legalized, but what about recreational use?

I would also argue that marijuana should be legalized for recreational use because, not only would it help fight the opioid epidemic, it would give users of other drugs and dangerous substances a safer alternative. Unlike marijuana, tobacco and alcohol cause hundreds of thousands of deaths every year. They are also legal. Smoking tobacco alone accounts for 1 out of every 5 deaths in the US annually for a total of more than 480,000 (including deaths from secondhand smoke). Smoking causes an estimated 71% of lung cancers, 42% of chronic respiratory disease and around 10% of cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, nearly 88,000 people die from alcohol related causes annually and, in 2014, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for 9,967 deaths. This makes alcohol related deaths the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States.

To pose a position for a counter-argument, some say that marijuana can be addictive and, though many marijuana users deny this accusation, there is not enough evidence to definitively say which side of the argument is right. A counter to this counter-argument would be that addiction has not stopped the legalization of alcohol and tobacco. Other than the the prohibition against alcohol initiated by the 18th Amendment, these two substances have been readily available and entirely legal for the majority of United States (and world) history. Addiction to these two substances is just as serious as addiction/dependence to opioids in some cases; in fact, it is possible to die from alcohol withdrawals while it is not possible to die from heroin withdrawals, in some ways making alcohol a higher-risk substance than heroin (I would like to note that, though withdrawals from opiates is dangerous, death only occurs in relapse when tolerance is lowered and users overdose).

Having said all of this, I think it is clear to see why marijuana should be legalized across the country for medical and recreational use since it has significant medical benefits and is a much safer alternative to other drugs like tobacco and alcohol. Though many people agree with this perspective, it is not certain that marijuana will be legalized on a national level any time soon. There was actually an opportunity a few weeks ago for marijuana to be rescheduled in its drug classification but it was not. Some theorize that this is because tobacco and alcohol companies have a lot of control over our government but it is not clear whether or not this is the case, though it would not be surprising. Regardless of the refusal of the federal government to reclassify, I do believe that marijuana will eventually be legalized across the country for both medical and recreational purposes and if you disagree, perhaps you should look back at this article and consider our present alternative.