persuasive speech for english class

So for my english class we have to write a persuasive speech about anything and present it to the class. I maturely asked my teacher if i could do it on why i think marijuana should be legal, and that i wouldnt try to make the presentation funny.
The speech you give can only be 3-5 minutes so i probobly wont be able to cover all the points i want to, so i was wondering what points do you guys think i should cover. I want to have 4 or 5 good points and collaborate on them for minute or so each.
Thanks in advance.

Well, there are plenty of reasons to support the legalization of marijuana. My personal favourite reference is Jack Herer.

This man is brilliant if you've never heard of him, and his book (that you can read on his very website) is full of history, facts, and information for you. The criminalization of marijuana is soley based on a racist-made laws, the discrimination of blacks and mexicans, and unconstitutional b.s.

We waste billions of dollars in tax money each year due to the failed "War on Drugs", instead of gaining an estimated 7-9 billion (I think it was) off taxing and de-prohibitionizing good ol' mary jane. Worse, the government refuses to even admit it's a legit medicine, when it's been proven that it helps aids, nausea in chemotheoropy, apetite overall, depression, anxiety, glaucoma, arthritis, and the list goes on. Marijuana would be considered "Earth's Asperin" if it wasn't criminalized.

Anyway, those are a few reason, dig into some of the chapters in the book and there's some JUICY information.

:smokin: smoke on

thanks alot. And yes ive heard of jack herer. I tried to pick up his book from barnes and noble some time ago but they didnt have it in stock. Thanks for the help.

recently its been proven, as far as i believe or remember, that marijuana in fact does not kill brain cells.

you should bring that up somewhere.

also it suppresses nausea, which is good for cancer patients being treated with harmful chemotherapy and radiation.

dont forget to add a 12 year study has proved that it is not infact a gateway drug at all.

It'll be one of the first studies on google - something to do with the university of pittburgh [sp?]