Pot, dope, bud, Mary Jane, hemp, herb or whatever you call it, all these words are nicknames that relate to the ever so popular drug plant, marijuana or cannabis. In the 1960s, if you knew whether or not someone had ever smoked marijuana, you could make a pretty intelligent guess about his or her political views. These days, marijuana isn't quite as potent symbols of the cultural divide; still, for a big green bush, marijuana remains mighty controversial. Much of the recent controversy has surrounded government officials' heads concerning the legalization of marijuana for medical and social reasons. But if you go back only a hundred years, and look at the public's attitude toward the weed back then, the smoke clears. For the several thousand years humans have been acquainted with marijuana, they have considered it one of the hardiest and most versatile plants around. However, the question that still remains is whether if the drug plant should be legalized. I believe that it should.
             If marijuana were to be legalized, there would be a drastic reduction in the criminality associated with the drug. If it were to be sold legally, drug lords would no longer be of high power and importance for the access or purchasing of marijuana. Also, teenagers, being the most common group that smokes the drug, wouldn't be as influenced in going through all the trouble with gangs and these drug lords for it.
             Canada's economy would grow to an extreme measure if marijuana were to be legalized and sold by the government. Marijuana that is nurtured and grown in private places such as homes, are called "grow-ups." These grow-ups provide huge amounts of income to their owner. Average grow-up income rates rank in at about forty-thousand dollars annually, keeping in mind that taxation is not present since this is a covert practice. Also, Statistics from B.C. Ministers of Agriculture indicate that marijuana annual retail is about thr...