Imagine you are five years old and can't have a regular childhood. Instead of going to school and playing with other children, you are taking intensive medications to keep your body from convulsing. In fact, some medications are making your condition worse and keeping you in and out of the emergency room. This is a summary of the true story of Charlotte Figi. She sometimes had up to 50 seizures a night until her parents got her a medical marijuana card in the state of Colorado. (Gummow) Marijuana is the dried leaves and flowers of the hemp plant, used for its euphoric effects. (Marijuana) It is often used for similar purposes to those for which alcohol is used, but from a medical point of view, marijuana is an excellent natural cure for deadly diseases. Cancer, epilepsy, and some surgeries have been cured or treated with marijuana. One of the biggest controversies in America today is whether marijuana should be legalized, meaning that people over the age of 21 could purchase and have an ounce of dried marijuana in their possession. (Lavender) Some disagree, but the miracles that marijuana does and will continue to do for people suffering from serious illnesses is why it should be legalized; as well as tax revenues that would benefit the American economy and the dangers of the illegal drug trade would be reduced if legalized. Those who might oppose marijuana legalization believe that machine-operated fatalities will increase, like car accidents, because the physical effects are similar to alcohol consumption. They also believe it is a gateway drug to worse illegal drugs such as crack, heroin or methamphetamine. The reality is that people will continue to use drugs, whether they are illegal or not. However, marijuana is the least harmful of all drugs and if legal... middle of the paper... the name stands and the amount of seriously ill people in the country, there is no time to wait. Works Cited Bonander, Ross. “California Elections: Can Marijuana Be Healthy?” AskMen. Np, nd Web. May 05, 2014."Drug Facts: Marijuana." National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Np, January 2014. Web. 04 May 2014. Easton, Stephen. “Legalize Marijuana for Tax Revenue.” Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 2009. Web. 05 May 2014. Gummow, Jodie. “8 Miracle Medical Marijuana Survival Stories.” Othernet. Np, Nov. 29, 2013. Web. May 5, 2014. Lavender, Paige. “Legalized marijuana begs the question: What about hashish?” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, July 14, 2013. Web. May 5, 2014."Marijuana." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com and Web. May 05, 2014.Young, Saundra. “Marijuana Stops Severe Seizures in Children.” CNN. Cable News Network, January 1, 1970. Web. May 5 2014.