According to a study from NORML, Marijuana has been smoked by 95 million Americans. And an estimated 8,120,045 people use marijuana habitually with over 100 uses per year. Since 1965 20 million arrests have been made in the name of marijuana, and it has cost taxpayers an almost countless mountain of money. The government has spent billions of our dollars, fighting the very thing that Americans gladly pay for, each and every day. Marijuana has proven and substantial health benefits and it has been shown to ease tension, relieve stress, treat PTSD and help countless other disorders. Marijuana isn’t a cure all, not by a long shot, but this antiquated sentiment that marijuana is poisoning the minds of our youth is about as outdated as the notion that alcohol is harmless.

Here are some things you might not know, and the answer to the longstanding question, Should we push for marijuana reform?

*Marijuana costs us, Joe Taxpayer, Billions. That’s with a B. We chase, prosecute, and house millions for marijuana related offenses and continue to do so, despite the overwhelming marijuana movement. One person being jailed for a victimless crime is one too many, and our jails are filled with them. Prison systems are full and private prisons have been sprouting up across the country to keep up with the demand to house marijuana related offenders while people who do truly stupid things are let out of jail to make more room for the kid caught growing a plant in his basement closet. (Paris Hilton, drunk driving?) *Crime only pays criminals because we allow it to. Taxing marijuana could reroute billions of dollars back into our struggling economy, end a failed war on drugs, and provide priceless relief for millions of struggling and disabled citizens. It will also put the drug cartels of foreign countries on the run, because let’s face it, no one would be smoking brick weed if the plant was available in your own backyard. The black market drug trade (akin to alcohol prohibition’s organized crime movement) flourishes in place of a legalized, taxed and regulated market. *Marijuana is the intelligent choice for pain control. The government has offered marijuana in pill form, so that they can profit from this anti-inflammatory analgesic pain relieving plant while refusing to admit that the medicinal benefits are valid, proven, and logical. What they cannot deny is that it helps millions every single day, despite the social stigma and legal status.Marijuana can provide regulated pain control without obscurring your ability to function. You can parent your children, love your spouse and fight your pain, can you say that about opiates? *It remains illegal in (far too) many states and the war on drugs has failed to slow, let alone stop the use and distribution of Marijuana anywhere in the United States. 90% of the money allocated for the war on drugs is used to prosecute marijuana related crimes, leaving 10% for all other drugs including heroin, methamphetamines, cocain and the tsunami of crimes related to prescription medications. More people die from prescription medications in one day, than people who have EVER died from overdosing on marijuana, the number of marijuana overdoses has been ZERO for thousands of years. More people have died from alcohol in the time it has taken you to read this post, than have ever died from marijuana. *To allow marijuana prohibition we are telling the government that we would like them to regulate what we can put in our own bodies, a basic human right of choice. I do not care what you do with your body, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t care what I did with mine.

Keep your laws off of my body

End Marijuana Prohibition today.

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