alc vs MJ essay

As it stands, what rating would you give this essay 1-10, 10 being the highest.
It could only be up to 3 pages long so i had to fit shit accordingly.
May i remind you this is freshman college english.

Alcohol Is More Dangerous Than Marijuana​

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Who has the right to judge right from wrong? Many people believe that marijuana is far worse than alcohol, mainly because they are ill informed or have been lied to. Since alcohol is legal, people assume that it is safer than marijuana. That is what the government or higher authorities would like you to believe considering that they make a pretty decent amount of money off of it. In the year two thousand nine, the government made almost six billion dollars from alcohol taxes. Tobacco is legal, yet four hundred forty three deaths are caused by it annually. When you look at the facts, you can distinguish the difference.
The first and most important fact of marijuana is there has never been any record of someone overdosing on it. To overdose you would have to smoke half your body weight in one day, which is physically impossible. If a recreational smoker tried to overdose, he would most likely pass out after the first pound anyway. There is a big controversy whether smoking marijuana causes any long term damage such as lung cancer. Of course smoking anything in excess will cause some harm but smoking marijuana, when used recreationally, will have no long term damage. Short term effects include a euphoric feeling, short attention span, altered sense of time and space, paranoia, food cravings, and difficulty in thinking.
Legally speaking, if you get caught with marijuana in your possession, as a misdemeanor, you could face up to a year in jail, suspension of your driver's license, a criminal record, work release, and probation. As a felony charge, you could face from a day up to ten years in prison and up to five thousand dollars in fines. It is quite strange to see people going to jail and having their lives ruined for a near harmless drug, when people that drink until their brains melt are allowed to run free.
There are benefits of smoking marijuana, which is why some states have accepted marijuana as a medical treatment. In fact, there have been studies that show the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol, cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer and reduces the risk of disease to spread. It can reduce nausea in patients involved with chemotherapy from cancer, can reduce pressure in the eye from glaucoma disease, and can decrease the amount of seizures in patients with epilepsy.
"If the words "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp it was written on." ("eazysmoke.com")
The main reason marijuana became illegal was because the hemp industry, hemp being the fiber of the marijuana plant, was competing with William Randolph Hearst's logging company. Hemp is cheap, reliable, and can be grown naturally with no other chemicals. It can be used for textiles, carpets, and even fuel. Hearst saw this as a great threat to his company, so he used his newspaper company to publish lies about hemp. Stories were made saying that marijuana caused murderous rampages.
- “By the tons it is coming into this country - the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him….”
Keep in mind that William Hearst also hated any minority, including Mexicans, who first introduced marijuana to America. This was all a scheme to keep his money and power. He did not care about the fact that marijuana was not a narcotic; he just wanted to make sure it was completely removed from society and industry.
The base of the ban of marijuana resides on racism, money, and greed.
Alcohol is far more dangerous than marijuana in many ways. Just by ingestion, seventy nine thousand people die from alcohol poison each year.
“Number of alcoholic liver disease deaths: 15,183
Number of alcohol-induced deaths, excluding accidents and homicides: 24,518”
("Center for disease control and prevention")

Drinking occasionally is not such a bad thing, but when you overdo it, consequences can be fatal. In low doses, alcohol can be relaxing, stress reducing, and pain easing. But in high doses, it can cause reduced coordination, foggy perception, carelessness, dizziness, and possible death. Long term effects include, but are not limited to, liver damage, psychosis, stomach ulcers, heart disease, increased blood pressure, and decreased brain mass. There are also benefits of alcohol. It is said to decrease chances of stroke with low doses.
It is safe to say that any drug can be abused, but it is up to the person to decide how much to administer. Marijuana is illegal in most states because of the jobs that keeping it illegal offers.

 

oh yea i obv had to edit and put sources and shit but yea thanks fer da tips ;D

alreddyy handed in. DISCOOSION CLOOSED