Posted by CM

Just want to say that those statistics are not effective claims for why marijuana should be legalized (the claim is "because alcohol is legal, marijuana should be too"). Alcohol is available nearly at any store, and is accessible to pretty much anyone of any age. Marijuana usage (of some type) is available in only 23(?) states. In states where it is illegal, it is expensive and hard to come by (people usually resort to illegally purchasing the substance). As a result, less people have access to large amounts of marijuana, meaning there are less people "high" on marijuana than there are people drunk every minute.

The legalization of marijuana would lead to a few things (in terms of those statistics): access to marijuana to all people would increase, meaning younger people have easier access to the substance (even if it was made for 21+ only, younger people would still have easy access). Producing of marijuana goes up, allowing more and more people to purchase it, causing its price to ultimately go down due to more and more being cheaply produced, further increasing its access to people. The amount of people "high" undoubtedly goes up, resulting in more daily fatal car accidents. Overdose, assaults, violence and crime go up in correspondence to the rising amount of marijuana usage; this results in more deaths caused by marijuana, completely altering those statistics.

More people will obviously die from alcohol each year than from marijuana because alcohol is accessible in more places than marijuana is. That's why I personally do not think those statistics are reasonable forms of support for why marijuana should be legalized.

tldr; "Marijuana should be legalized because alcohol is legal and more people die from it than marijuana" isn't a good claim

Just my two cents.