There are many arguments both for and against the passage of California’s Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis act. The debate about legalization has been raging for over a hundred years, and when California voters went to the polls in November, the results were closely watched and hotly debated for not legalizing Cannabis. Opinions are varied depending on the source while the medical uses of marijuana are under debate; many doctors agree there are some medical uses for the drug. Bryan Hughes represents District Five in the Texas House of Representatives and has written many papers for not legalizing Cannabis and his opinion is that the legalization of recreational use could lead to many negative health effects. Seeing how Marijuana is mainly ingested through smoking, and the smoking of any substance, especially long-term, can seriously damage a person’s lungs. It has also been shown that frequent heavy use of marijuana can permanently impair short-term memory and reaction time. These opponents argue that legalized recreational marijuana would increase the use of marijuana, which would be a danger to public health. (Hughes B. 2010). As stated by the Citizens Against Legalizing Marijuana (CALM) it takes the position that Federal laws against the use, cultivation, and transportation of marijuana should be maintained and enforced and should not be relaxed or softened. Cultivation, processing, transportation and use are illegal under the Federal Controlled Substance Act. Marijuana continues to be identified by Congress and the DEA as a schedule I drug. Schedule I drugs are classified as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment, and a lack of accepted safety for use. After decades of study the FDA continues to reaffirm that there is no medical benefit provided by the use of smoked marijuana and that, in fact, considerable harm can be caused by such use.(FDA. 2012). CALM is opposed to any State law that attempts to undermine the Federal Controlled Substance Act. Their position is that California Proposition 215 was misrepresented under the misguided claim that there is substantial “medical” benefit from ingesting marijuana and that the harm and negative impacts would be negligible.
(www.calmca.org).
Many politicians and staunch opponents against legalizing Marijuana have the opinion that it is often used as a stepping-stone drug, leading to heroin, cocaine, or other harder drugs. Marijuana is often referred to as the gateway drug. Marijuana users often step up to harder and more dangerous drugs. Studies show that marijuana use often progresses to the use of harder drugs. In other words, people experiment with what is often thought of as a "harmless" drug. Then,
