Guys: Use what Vic and I threw down as a base for the Essay. We need to merge the two, edit, and possibly add some stuff to be done.

"Say hello to the Bad Guy!"

If there was the actual possibility of marijuana being legalized, and stores became legitimate manufacturers of the drug, who would buy it? The thing that sets marijuana apart from alcohol and cigarettes is that they are more difficult to make from scratch. Marijuana however, can simply be homegrown from anyone’s backyard. So now you are face with a product that can either be bought at stores or homegrown and obtained free of cost. What would the age limit be in order to legally attain this product? Would it be attainable by children when they turn eighteen or when they became the legal age of 21? At what age is it okay to smoke the drug of marijuana? There is a reason that so many different companies produce alcohol and cigarettes, it's the simple fact that it has become a trade skill. Hemp can be literally grown anywhere, in fact it has been proven so through hydroponics. The fact of the matter is, with the legalization of the plant comes the incentive to pay a higher priced, taxed version of something you can simply grown on your own,.  If one were to grow it in ones room. under very stable conditions, the incentive disappears. The result of which is spending millions of tax payer's dollars in order to find and/or create new firms that are willing to take lead in the legal production of Marijuana. Granted, I'm not saying that if it's legal everyone will instantly turn their backyards into Marijuana cultivation facilities, but the fact that Marijuana has never been legal and was never introduced into to the legitimate market system, it will be considerably tough to shut down the illegal operations that supply the world with Marijuana. Especially when a majority of these operations are importers to the U.S. it will be near impossible to convince these operation leaders to pay import fees & taxes while receiving a considerably lower profit.

I also think that if the marijuana drug was legalized it would create an even greater incentive to be sold on the streets. Because it is illegal as of right now, everyone knows that if they smoke it they are putting themselves at risk of going to jail. If it is legalized however, there will be a drastic increase in the amount of people that smoke it, thus demand for the drug will sky rocket.  Any person in marketing knows that with high demand comes the want for more production and distribution. Legalizing the drug will only increase the incentive for people to become “Self employed producers.” How many people do you know that carry packs of cigarettes or bottles of alcohol wit the intention of selling them in the streets or even worse, in today’s schools? Not very many I suspect, reason being that alcohol and cigarettes are not easy products to manufacture privately.

7000BC failed to approach economical statistics that involve the use of Marijuana. For example, the amount of arrests made every year from the use and/or possession of Marijuana and it's effect on our economy as a whole, mainly sprouting from the judicial branch of our government. I think their approach on the topic was thought out from a "smoker's point" and / or political point.  However, like most topics, it should addressed from an economical perspective. Yes, showing that you can still be a benefit to society while being a so called "user" of Marijuana is nice, but it does not effect our community on a whole. How ever the amount of tax dollars American citizens put out every year regarding the regulation of marijuana from an illegal stand point is outrageous. Especially due to the extremely high amount of marijuana related arrests that simply involve use and/or possession. The amount of money being spent on the control of marijuana is a losing battle; where as that same amount of money can be spent on the education of our upcoming generations.

The illegal consumption of cannibus has been a debate that has raged since the inception of the ban. The supporters of deregulation of recreational activities regarding the plant continue to ask "why is it banned" and "why was it banned in the first place." Recently this debate has taken a different turn and entered the arena of whether medicinal marijuana should be legalized.

Those whom advocate marijuana's legalization continue to cite that while it is illegal to use Marijuana, a vast majority of those in the United States have used or do use Marijuana. This is the classic case of one of flaws of humanity as a whole. People want what they can't have. Well why is it Marijuana and not Heroine or Cocaine that there is such a high illegal consumption of? Accessability. Cocaine, Heroine, PCP are all part of the same catagory as marijuana but are different in one major aspect. Take cocaine for instance. To make the substance one must have a significant knowlege of chemisty and access to a variety of different chemicals. How does one make marijuana? A seed, dirt and water. Almost every property owner in America has both the resources and level of knowledge required to manufacter an injestable form of this drug.

What about medical marijuana? Should we allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes? If history could talk it would say, "No." The controlled drug of extacy was first introduced to the American public as an aide to marriage councilors. Arguably, the drug did aid marriage counciling, but after a short period of time the drug transcended medicinal value and increasingly became a recreational drug with deadly consequences. Further more Cocaine first came into the United States as a "miracle drug" as well. It supposedly cured everything from toothaches to liver problems. Medicinal Cocaine is what led to labels of ingredients, the Food and Drug Saftey Act, and a drug epidemic. Will marijuana be any different? The use of medicinal marijuana will only further its underground drug trafficing, and black-market economy. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has issued statements which content addresses the Medicinal Marijuana issue. In these statements they assert that studies have failed not only to show why medicinal marijuana should be legal, but why it should be illegal as well. The DEA's stance on the issue is that there is no conclusive evidence that marijuana either is, or is not beneficial as medicinal to date.

In conclusion, the advocates of legalized marijuana continue to argue their cause in the wrong arena. They argue about certain points that make it illegal, but never argue as to what societies benefit would be if it were legalized. Why is this? Because to date there is not a sound, positive reason as to why officials should undertake the process of making it legal. These arguments would have been viable against the ban prior to its formulation but the fact is, for better or worse, marijuana is banned and now the question is "what benefit is there of removing the ban?" The thought process of "I think it should be legal because there isn't a reason for it to be illegal" historically has not proven a valid reason.