To access extended pro and con arguments, sources, and discussion questions about whether recreational marijuana should be legal, go to ProCon.org.
More than half of US adults have tried marijuana, despite it being an illegal drug under federal law. Recreational marijuana, also known as adult-use marijuana, was first legalized in Colorado and Washington in 2012.
Pot. Weed. Ganja. Mary Jane. There are more than a thousand slang terms in the English language to refer to marijuana. A 1943 article in TIME magazine called it muggles, mooter, and bambalacha, and referred to marijuana cigarettes as goof-butts and giggle-smokes. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, use of the word “marijuana” (also written as “marihuana” in older references) came to popularity in the United States in the 1930s as an alternative to the more familiar terms “cannabis” and “hemp.
Cannabis, the scientific name for marijuana, is a plant that has three species (or strains): cannabis indica, cannabis sativa, and the less common cannabis ruderalis. Marijuana and hemp are both cannabis plants, but marijuana contains higher levels of THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the primary psychoactive ingredient that causes people to get high. Hemp can be cultivated for industrial uses such as rope and burlap fabric, or for a low-THC, non-psychoactive, medicinal product. The words “cannabis” and “marijuana” are frequently used interchangeably, as are the words “recreational” and “adult-use.”
Marijuana legalization refers to the practice of allowing and regulating the production, distribution, sale, and possession of cannabis so that marijuana use within the established rules is no longer a crime. There are different models of legalization, including allowing people to grow their own marijuana, nonprofit co-ops, and for-profit commercialization with retail sales.
PRO
- Legalizing recreational marijuana results in helpful regulation of a safe drug, without increasing potential negative consequences.
- Legalizing recreational marijuana would end the costly, and frequently racist, enforcement of marijuana laws and debilitate the illegal marijuana market.
- Legalizing recreational marijuana boosts the economy by creating new tax revenue and jobs.
- Most Americans agree recreational marijuana should be legal.
CON
- Legalizing recreational marijuana comes with serious societal costs.
- Legalizing recreational marijuana dramatically increases growth of the plant, which is bad for the environment.
- Legalizing recreational marijuana creates a “Big Marijuana” industry, while boosting illegal marijuana sales and use.
- Health experts do not believe recreational marijuana should be legal.
This article was published on February 1, 2023, at Britannica’s ProCon.org, a nonpartisan issue-information source.