Growing up as a child, I remember teachers and parents telling me over and over again, "Drugs are bad for you." As a child I listened to these authority figures without question; without fully understanding the reasoning behind this statement. As I matured, I observed marijuana becoming almost glamorized by mainstream media sources. These media sources portrayed people as enjoying the “high” they received from the drug, making it seem more pleasant than harmful. I began to wonder: what is the appeal of this drug in making people go against the law? After having my experience with the drug and its effects, I have difficulty understanding why exactly this drug is illegal throughout the world. Since the drug has come into general use, I think the real question should be: why not? First, why exactly was marijuana made illegal? It is certainly not illegal for health reasons, if that were the case alcohol and tobacco products would also be illegal. The fact is that we live in the land of the free, yet politicians continually impose limitations on what we can and cannot do. One of the fundamental principles on which our country was founded was freedom of choice. If that freedom of choice is to indulge in vices like alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana that may be considered harmful to our health, that should be a decision we make as individuals and ours alone. Think about alcohol for a minute. Alcohol is a substance we are used to and is associated with parties, celebrations and relaxation. What else is alcohol associated with? How about drunk driving and the deaths of thousands of people every year. Now let's think about marijuana. Weed has a reputation for being something taboo and associated with sin by religious people. But how many people are killed each year due to recreational marijuana use? One tenth of all alcohol-related deaths. The government adheres to a strict policy and grants prison sentences to anyone caught in possession of the substance. Should anyone be jailed for a beer? The fact is that there are legalized substances that have much worse repercussions for their use than marijuana. They say that marijuana use is harmful to health and through the gateway theory leads to the use of harder drugs. We are not saying that this view is entirely wrong; any inhalation of a substance is harmful to your health and yes, sometimes it leads to another drug use. The flaw in this view is that there are many legal drugs on the market; caffeine, tobacco products, prescription or over-the-counter drugs, etc. If you want to say that smoking marijuana leads to cocaine use or drug abuse, you must also say that alcohol does the same thing. Furthermore, it is argued that the distribution of marijuana by state dispensaries violates the idea that it is the state's responsibility to protect its citizens from harmful substances. This is illogical due to studies that have been conducted showing that the health risks of processed tobacco are substantially higher than the health risks of marijuana. Citizens have the right to make their own decisions and to be responsible enough to take care of themselves based on their beliefs. Another thought against legalization is that marijuana use clouds a person's logical decision making and is addictive. After reviewing numerous websites and academic articles, I still am