Since its appearance in the United States, Marijuana has become a highly volatile issue creating several government countermeasures as well as being a topic of wide debt. Its distant cousin, Hemp is also outlawed solely because it is of the same genus of plant, despite it is completely harmless and has multiple uses for industry. In our countries history there has never been a substance with higher controversy than weed, cannabis, and reefer. One of the biggest adverse effects that marijuana has towards the government is the cost of law enforcement. "Marijuana prohibition now costs state and federal government as much as $20 billion a year  (Sledge 1), says Matt Sledge a Huffington post reporter and graduate from Brown. This money is a sufficient chunk of the U.S. government's spending and these costs are spent pursuing anything to small time offenders to large scale distributors. Though America spends so much money fighting marijuana use, public opinion shows a stark contrast to the U.S. government's actions. Recent polls conducted by NPR show "that 58 percent of the public supports the legalization of marijuana, while 39 percent opposed it.  (Wollner). So despite all the actions to prohibit marijuana there is a disparity starting to form between these actions and the public opinion. Ultimately the positive effects of marijuana legalization are so vast, it seems strange that it should remain illegal. For instance there are several medical benefits to using marijuana, it can help alleviate some the symptoms of glaucoma, muscular dystrophy, and reduce the effects of cancer treatment on patients. Beside its benefits one of the most controversial topics in regards to Marijuana ; are the grounds on which it was declared illegal which are extremely outdated and very unjustified. Another dilemma is the amount of arrest due to marijuana possession, these arrests can be damning to its recipients for acquiring any sort of career in the future. Overall Marijuana should be a legal substance which has little to no government restrictions much like alcohol and tobacco where citizens can produce it freely should they choose or buy it with a small tax from the government. On of the most unfortunate effects of marijuana on the community is its legality. When someone is caught with possession they are given sentences similar to those who are caught with possession of harder drugs such as methamphetamine and cocaine even though they are much more extreme. In fact "Since 1990, over 7.2 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges -Nearly 90 percent of these arrests were for simple possession, not cultivation or sale  ( Paul ). This number vastly exceeds the amounts of people arrested for the use of any other drugs combined though marijuanas link to violent crimes are nearly zero yet they receive punishments on par with these harder substances. Due to these arrests the perpetrators are far less likely to be hired for many career options, solely for their labelmate which could of been for something as small as 1 gram. The majority of arrests are not for the the distributor or the gangs associated with transport but are far more often teenagers who are first time offenders. Though many people receive arrest records and imprisonment, the opposition justifies this saying marijuana is a deadly substance due to its addictiveness. An argument which they prove by focusing on the vast amount of individuals who are in rehab as a result of marijuana use. This fact is indeed true, people in rehab because of marijuana vastly outnumbers most other substances including alcohol. Though while it is true marijuana is addictive it is no more potent and addictive as any other substance including those sold over the counter. The fact of the matter remains that the reason for the high amount of patients in rehab from marijuana is simple "Primarily, these are young people arrested for minor possession offenses, brought before a criminal judge (or drug court), and ordered to rehabilitation in lieu of jail or juvenile detention ( Paul ). The majority of users caught are teenagers who because of their age are given an option designed to cure them, and so when presented with jail or rehab the decision is obvious. So saying that the majority of rehab patients are marijuana addicts is ill supported and a misused fact used to persuade and misinform the public. While the debate rages on over the legalization of marijuana one of the most unkn