Apologies in advance if I misplaced this thread but it covers multiple topics and I wasn't sure where it should go. This is the persuasive essay I wrote for my 12th grade english class. The instruction was to write a persuasive essay on anything we want. Next To Be Outlawed: Sanity “How absurd is a law that seeks to classify a plant as a crime, as if there were something feloniously wrong with nature?†asked Supreme Court Justice Jim Staples as he voiced his disapproval of cannabis prohibition. Many myths have formed about cannabis, most likely as scare tactics for the unsuspecting youth. The federal prohibition of cannabis is merely a governmental façade to protect precious tax dollars. Bottom line, there is a serious misconception about cannabis' detrimental effects, medical benefits and commercial employment. Dr. James Fox, Director of the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control, US Food and Drug Administration agrees that "we can now say that marijuana does not lead to degeneration, does not affect the brain cells, is not habit forming, and does not lead to heroin addictionâ€[4]. Any normal government official or DARE officer would argue otherwise, but always with strikingly inconclusive supporting data. It's known that marijuana is definitively safer than most foods we consume daily. As explained by the DEA's Administrative Law Judge, Francis Young, eating 10 raw potatoes is toxic [5]. Contrarily, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to cause death. She concluded that in its unprocessed form, "[marijuana] is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."[5] Marijuana contains cannabinoids, which are groups of chemicals that are always in production naturally by the human body and whose function in the body is the maintenance of homeostasis. Cannabinoids have proven beneficial to many aspects of health, even treating malignant lung tumors. In tests performed at Universities in <st1:state><st1lace>Virginia</st1lace></st1:state>, tumor growth in mice was inhibited by between forty-eight and seventy-five percent within twelve days [1]. On the thirtieth day, mice treated with delta-9-THC (the main psychoactive cannabinoid in medicinal marijuana) saw seventy-six percent reductions in tumor growth compared to control mice as well as thirty-six percent increases in survival time [1]. Despite the outstanding results, U.S. Government Officials banished the studies and ended all funding. Professor Doug Husak of <st1lace><st1lacename>Rutgers</st1lacename> <st1lacetype>University</st1lacetype></st1lace> conveys that “if the rationale for Drug Prohibition is to prevent persons from killing themselves, it seems apparent that the state has made the wrong recreational drugs illegal.â€[2] Cannabis is not only medically advantageous but has almost innumerable commercial uses. All parts of the cannabis plant can be fabricated into just about anything. Hemp, the leaves and stems of the transcendental plant can be used to make clothes, food, bio-fuel, toiletries and in Henry Ford's case, a car. Houses have been made from the extremely strong, flexible hemp-board. "Industrial hemp cultivation has been a successful cash crop for farmers in Canada and Europe, and there is no logical reason why US farmers should be denied the legal authority to participate in this growing worldwide industry,"[1] argues NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre. All products of the plant are also, in their entirety, biodegradable. The cannabis plant has another matchless characteristic in that it ameliorates the soil as it grows, furthering its utility. Prior to the illegalization of cannabis, law mandated that farmers grow cannabis on their land periodically to replenish the soil's lost nutrients. As Thomas Jefferson once concluded, “The greatest service which can be rendered to any country is to add a useful plant to its culture.â€[3] Cannabis' long-established roots in society surely prove its efficacy. The fact that a plant with so many commercial and medical uses is outlawed is absolutely incongruous with common sense. Removing the federal ban would bestow a great service upon this nation.