“Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as my eye could see”—Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826). Thomas Jefferson like so many other historical people often grew, smoked and used hemp or marijuana back when it was legal. In the early 1930’s little was known about the drug so many feared it which resulted in it becoming illegal. Jumping forward almost 80 years later and the advancement of technology, many researchers have found that marijuana could benefit the medical community and many states have moved towards legalizing it. The controversy lies in that using it for medical purposes is different than using the drug for recreation use. The legalization of marijuana for recreational use would benefit society as a whole because we would be able to utilize all of the benefits that the plant has to offer such as hemp oil instead of gasoline, it would mean that there would be fewer people in correctional facilities for such offenses, and there would potentially be a significant decrease in the amount of alcohol related crimes.
The legalization of marijuana for recreational use would benefit society as a whole because we would be able to utilize all of the benefits the plant has to offer such as hemp oil instead of gasoline. Marijuana also known as hemp has been used for centuries for a number of different items. Many cultures would grow hemp to make sails for ships, ropes, paper and even clothing and according to Marcus and Small, “Until the beginning of the 19th century, hemp was the leading cordage fiber” (2002, para.2) They would use the seeds for oils and many would even eat them. It has even been rumored that Henry Ford made the first Model T out of hemp fibers and it ran off of hemp oil. Ford was quoted as saying “"Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp...