The topic of legalizing recreational marijuana in the United States has been highly controversial. States like Colorado and Washington have gone on the offensive and legalized recreational marijuana and have enjoyed the high revenues from cannabis sales. On the other hand other states have kept a low profile because they are wary of the possible negative outcomes of legalizing recreational marijuana and are using the states of Colorado and Washington as guinea pigs to see what their next course of action should be on this controversial topic. This is a highly debated topic not only among politicians, but also among the people. According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 52% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana and 72% of Americans believe that anti-marijuana laws have more costs than benefits. Recreational marijuana will eventually be legalized in the United States nationwide due to its popularity and numerous benefits. It will be legalized because teenagers' use of alcohol, cigarettes, prescription drugs and other illicit drugs has dropped dramatically since they switched to marijuana, which doesn't carry as many dangers as these other drugs. Legalizing marijuana would hurt drug cartels' profits and also help the U.S. economy in a couple of different ways; we could tax it, we would earn revenue from marijuana, and the amount of money we would dedicate to anti-drug efforts and incarceration of prisoners for marijuana possession would be dramatically reduced. Finally, legalizing marijuana would allow us to use it for its many commercial and industrial purposes. Because of the media and the rise of medical marijuana, teenagers have the... middle of paper......ism to do so. For some critics, marijuana is considered a gateway drug leading to harder drugs such as cocaine, LSD and heroin that cause many health problems, addiction and death. Additionally, doctors have seen patients addicted to marijuana and similar withdrawal symptoms to other illicit drugs. Not only that, marijuana is also a depressant and affects all types of relationships. Marijuana also negatively affects alertness, motor skills and perception. There is also fear that drug cartels in Mexico will not really be affected by the legalization of marijuana and will start targeting teenagers with harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin. This could lead to people in the country wanting all drugs to be legalized to counter cartels which would negatively impact the country as marijuana does not have the repercussions that other illicit drugs have..