Do you think an illegal substance should be made legal for recreational purposes (just to get high)? For years ever since the criminalization of marijuana, there has been a heated debate going on whether it should be legal in the United States or not. Marijuana has been used as a medicine, a food, a fiber, and an intoxicant for thousands of years. Most nations including the United States have laws prohibiting the cultivation, distribution, possession, and use of marijuana. There are many reasons why marijuana should be legalized in the United States. Three major ones are because of police resources, medical purposes, and the economy. Many police resources go toward marijuana drug busts every year. Money could be spent elsewhere if marijuana were a legal substance. There are about 750,000 arrests made yearly, and a marijuana related arrest made every 42 seconds to an American for something even as petty as possession. A whopping …show more content…
This theory consists of the belief that marijuana is a gateway drug. Weed could eventually lead users to dependence on more addictive drugs. “If marijuana is legalized, it could lead to more cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy”, says correctional officer Joseph G. Brown in the Department of Justice for the Drug Enforcement Administration. The U.S could end up having to spend even MORE money in law enforcement services having to deal with more overall drugs all around. In the final analysis, despite all this, marijuana should still be legal for various reasons. For it will help better the drug association economy, advance medicine, and force law enforcement to be used more wisely. Legality would have more beneficial factors than negative. Even if there were not full legalization, there should be decriminalization, making charges less stern, and legalization in all 50 states permitting marijuana to be used
Marijuana is a relatively harmless drug that governments around the world have made illegal. If legalized, marijuana can be beneficial to society in a number of ways: whether it be for medical, economic, or public safety reasons. Marijuana has been proven to treat several life debilitating, and even life threatening diseases. Although it is not a cure, marijuana can ease the pain and suffering of a dying person. Another benefit of legalization is the financial gains that governments will accomplish through the taxation of marijuana. This is a realistic claim if marijuana sales are compared to that of cigarettes; governments make billions each year from cigarette taxes (Caputo and Ostrom 484). Every year law enforcement spends countless man-hours trying to apprehend marijuana dealers and growers. This time would be better utilized in dealing with more serious crimes. This essay will display some main reasons why marijuana is a substance with beneficial uses and applications. First, marijuana can be used as a treatment for the effects of diseases such as AIDS, cancer, glaucoma, and other terminal diseases. A study carried out in California clearly demonstrates the effectiveness of marijuana as a treatment for cancer: “Over 74 percent of the cancer patients treated in the program have reported that marijuana is more effective in relieving their nausea and vomiting than any other drug they have tried.”(Zeese 1990). Chemotherapy for cancer patients often produces nausea and vomiting. Marijuana has been proven to relieve these symptoms and there have been no known side effects recorded (Ad Hoc Group of Experts part 4).
Legalization of Marijuana has quickly become a controversial issue in America. In the United States, legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes is spreading to the state level. For example, in November 1996, the people of California and Arizona voted to legalize marijuana for medicinal reasons. As a result of Proposition 215 in California, patients now smoke marijuana provided their physician recommends its usage. A prescription is not required, and marijuana continues to be illegal to prescribe. The Clinton administration responded that it “would not recognize these decisions, and would prosecute physicians who recommend or provide marijuana to their patients.” Although California and Arizona are the only two states to have already passed laws regulating marijuana usage, twenty-six states and the District of Columbia have laws and resolutions regarding marijuana usage. These laws and resolutions range from establishing therapeutic research programs, to allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana, to asking the federal government to lift the ban. Despite the states’ desires to have marijuana legalized for medicinal purposes, the US National Institutes of Health examined all existing clinical evidence about smoked marijuana and concluded that, “There is no scientifically sound evidence that smoked marijuana is medically superior to currently available therapies.”
The cost of marijuana prohibition is gigantic. Including policing, court appearances, and incarceration, the bill on taxpayers is endless and a large amount of this money is for cases of simple marijuana possession. Daniel Egan and Jeffrey A. Miron estimate that, “[L]egalizing marijuana would save...$8 billion per year in prohibition enforcement costs”(Budgetary,17). This is a huge amount of money that could make its way elsewhere into the infrastructure like drug awareness and prevention. Not to mention the priceless amount of time given back to the police forces to peruse more harmful crimes. In their report the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs finds “[A]pproximately 50,000 drug-related charges in 1999.... Overall, 54%... were for possession [of cannabis]”(Cannabis,130). As far as budget costs for any part of the judicial system go, a 54% reduction in anything would go along way. The legalisat...
in Colorado and Washington as not only medicinal, but recreational use. They have also begun
Marijuana is the cause of much commotion and debate, as the question of legalization becomes more of an issue. Drugs are a major influential force in countries all over the world today. Legalization is an option that has not had a chance, but really should be given one. Although many people feel that legalizing marijuana would increase the amount of drug use, legalization would benefit for the following reasons: 1)reduction of money spent on law enforcement 2)increase in the countries revenue 3)lessen crime 4)useful in treating certain medical conditions. Many feel today we are losing the war on drugs.
Marijuana has a greater beneficial impact on society then many people realize. Marijuana should be legalized for medical as well as recreational purposes. This is a highly controversial issue that is being debated throughout the country. In essence marijuana is evaluated by the effectiveness of the drug. It is defined as the dried flowered clusters and leaves of a hemp plant smoked for the intoxicating effect. Whether it should be legalized or not is the real question.
According to Martin Luther King Jr., “There are two types of laws: there are just and there are unjust laws” (King 293). During his time as civil rights leader, he advocated civil disobedience to fight the unjust laws against African-Americans in America. For instance, there was no punishment for the beatings imposed upon African-Americans or for the burning of their houses despite their blatant violent, criminal, and immoral demeanor. Yet, an African-American could be sentenced to jail for a passive disagreement with a white person such as not wanting to give up their seat to a white passenger on a public bus. Although these unjust laws have been righted, Americans still face other unjust laws in the twenty-first century.
... it also cost taxpayers millions of dollars. Fifty-six participants from different demographics were asked whether they think people should be put in jail if they are caught with any amount of marijuana. The results show that forty-nine people believe that pot should be decriminalized compared to only seven people thinking that they should go to prison if caught with marijuana. (See Figure 6)
To start off, human beings have been smoking marijuana for quite some time now, and many of those humans abuse it and become addicted. Once an individual has tried marijuana, they can have the desire to abuse it and do it more often. According to adai.us.edu, “If you use marijuana daily, there is a 50/50 chance that you will become addicted”. Cannabis Dependence is a psychological disorder in which people rely on weed to just feel normal, which is not healthy. This disorder will only increase over time if marijuana is legalized. Also if legalized people will build up a tolerance to pot and to reach their desired high they will have to use it more and more. Marijuana is classified as a gateway drug and if legalized it will lead people to use more hardcore drugs like heroin or methamphetamine, which in turn they will want legalized. Not only is marijuana addictive it also presents many health risks.
Marijuana is a drug that is mind altering, and it is the number one most popular drug that is illegal in the United States. Marijuana comes from the hemp plant (cannabis sativa). The ingredient in marijuana that gets you "high" is called THC. Some of marijuana’s effects are relaxation, uplifting, lack of attention, impaired memory, some experience paranoia, or some experience euphoria. There are many people that use it in the United States. Statistics say that one third of Americans have used it at one time or another. The legalization of marijuana would benefit America in many ways, such as increased government income, creating jobs for Americans, and lowering the crime rates in the country.
What is a drug? A drug is “a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being” (Drug, n.d). We the people have established that marijuana is an illegal drug. Lately around the United States we are starting to change the rules for that. There are states that have deemed it O.K. to sell marijuana to the public for health reasons. With this happening a lot of things are being brought up. One of the main topics that come up is the economic value that this revenue will generate and how it will affect the states.
Against Marijuana Legalization Should Marijuana Be Legalized? In society today, many people look for a feeling of freedom. Many people go on vacation and spend money. The most common escape for people is drugs. Our American society is facing a tremendous drug problem.
With America’s war on drugs being highly focused on the increased use of marijuana, there is not much time for officers to focus on crimes of greater importance. Crimes related to illegal marijuana use are becoming more problematic due to drug deals that go bad, occasionally ending with murder. It has been estimated that one marijuana-related arrest is made every 42 seconds. With marijuana being illegal, keeping crime related activities under control cost the United States approximately twenty billion dollars per year (Sledge). According to Brian Bremner and Vincent Del Giudice, “A 2010 study by the libertarian Cato Institute, forecasted that states could save $17.4 billion annually from reduced drug enforcement costs and increased tax revenue, assuming marijuana production and sales were legal nationwide” (11). Several law enforcement hours are exhausted with pursing, questioning, and arresting citizens that are in possession of or consuming marijuana. There would be a decrease in the number of misdemeanor possession cases that are pending hearing. These cases would be dismissed, decreasing costs affiliated with each case. There are excessive numbers of people who remain incarcerated for nonviolent crimes related to illegal marijuana use. Legalizing marijuana would allow these people to be released, opening jail space for the true criminals. Legalizing marijuana would free up law enforcement officers from focusing on illegal marijuana use and allow focus to be put on more serious
Should marijuana be legalized? This is a question that, in recent years, has seen headlines of various news sources. It has become a big deal as a few states in the US have legalized it for recreational use and even more have legalized marijuana for medical use. There are many opinions on the legalization of marijuana. There are those who believe that marijuana should be legal for recreational use. Some believe that marijuana should only be legalized for medical use, and some who believe that marijuana should not be legal at all. There are multiple reasons on each stance that support that way of thinking. All these viewpoints, and reasons that support each view, will be looked at and discussed throughout this
Last year, a total of $7 to $10 billion was used towards arresting and processing marijuana. The big picture here is that 90% of those arrests were just for possession. It is crazy that as a country we spend most of our time trying to stop the biggest drug in America when it is just wasting our money. There are fewer arrests for violent crimes than marijuana charges combined. These “violent crimes” consist of assault, rape, robbery, and murder.