Directions: Read the following two passages carefully and then write an essay in which you identify the most important concerns regarding the issue and explain why they are important. Your essay must draw on information from both of the sources. In addition, you may draw on your own experiences, observations, or reading. Be sure to cite the sources whether you are paraphrasing or directly quoting.

Passage 1 - Excerpted from: Nadelmann, Ethan, Economist Debates, October 1st, 2013.

None of these presidents [of countries such as Uruguay, Colombia, and Guatemala, who have advocated cannabis legalization], or most of the citizens who approve legalizing marijuana, are "pro-pot," nor do any want their children using marijuana. What motivates them is the realization that marijuana prohibition has entirely failed in its objectives, the belief that police should focus on real crime rather than arresting young people for possessing a joint, and the desire to have government rather than organized criminals collect the revenue.

Is marijuana addictive? Yes, it can be, in that some people use it to excess, in ways that are problematic for themselves and those around them, and find it hard to stop. But marijuana may well be the least addictive and least damaging of all commonly used psychoactive drugs. Most people who smoke marijuana never become dependent. Withdrawal symptoms pale beside those of other drugs. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose, which cannot be said of most other drugs. Marijuana is not associated with violent behavior and only minimally with reckless sexual behavior. And even heavy marijuana smokers smoke only a fraction of what cigarette addicts smoke. Lung cancers involving people who smoke marijuana but not tobacco are virtually nil.

Passage 2 - Excerpted from: McKeganey, Neil, Economist Debates, October 1st, 2013.

The [UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs] concluded that the "evidence supports a causal association between the use of cannabis in adolescence and the later development of schizophrenia." These are not minor mental-health problems easily treated—rather, they are among the most difficult of psychiatric illnesses to treat in countries with well-developed mental-health services let alone those where such services are fledgling or non-existent.

Would legalization result in an increase in cannabis use and an increase in these and other harms? In Portugal, where all drugs were decriminalized for personal use in 2002, there has been an increase in cannabis consumption among young people. Within the UK, by contrast, where cannabis remains illegal, there has been a marked reduction in overall cannabis use by young people. These different outcomes suggest caution before advocating in favor of global cannabis legalization.

The advocates of legalization often cite the tax gains that they confidently announce would flow from such a shift in policy. Taxing cannabis, though, is a tricky business: charge too much tax and the buyers may revert to securing their cannabis from the pre-existing black market; charge too little and the price at which the drug is being sold goes down, the tax revenue reduces, and the number of people buying the drug and the health harms associated with that use potentially increase.

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