Every year our government spends more than nineteen billion dollars to eradicate it’s use in the United States. About seventeen thousand people were arrested last year because of it. We spend twenty thousand dollars a year per inmate to hold these jailbirds captive. Who are these dangerous criminals you ask? Stoners. One argument against the decriminalization of marijuana is why would we want to introduce another intoxicant into our society when alcohol and cigarette smoking is already so damaging? Marijuana is far less harmful to the body than cigarettes. Not to mention while it may be potentially habit forming, it is not addictive. When comparing marijuana to alcohol the differences are obvious. I would much rather be in an argument with guy that has been smoking joints all night than some dude who has spent all night pounding shots of tequila. Alcohol can alter a persons common sense. Despite this, our government trusts us with the burden of drinking responsibly. Over seventeen thousand arrests are made regarding cannabis a year. Almost ninety percent of these arrests are for simple possession, not trafficking or sale. This is an inappropriate use of valuable law enforcement resources that should be focused on more serious and violent crimes. I don’t know about you, but I would rather have a midnight toker for a neighbor than a midnight stalker. The spending of government money needs to be reevaluated. Our government needs to take a step back and admit they were mistaken to think they could successfully discontinue the use of marijuana. “You cannot have illegal what a significant segment of the population in any society is committed to doing. You simply cannot arrest, prosecute, and punish such a large number of people, particularly in a democracy” (Incardi 285). Ultimately it is not the role of the government to tell it’s adult citizens what risks to take. Bicycles kill ten thousand people a year and yet no one is proposing to make them illegal. There are benefits of legalizing marijuana, both for the government and society. One of these is that the marijuana market could be government run. The black market would be abolished, saving lives and redirecting the profits from the drug dealers’ Escalade’s new rims to the be... ... middle of paper ... ...ortant. It is time we allow the many health benefits of marijuana to be utilized by those who need them. It is time we realize there are different cost effective, environment friendly and efficient ways of producing many of our most used products. All we can do is hope our government comes to its senses soon. Works Cited Page Baxter, J.W. Growing Industrial Hemp In Ontario. 27 November 2004. http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/facts/00-067.htm Gray, Judge James P. Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 2001. HempNation. 27 November 2004. http://hempnation.com/ Incardi, James A Handbook of Drug Control in the United States. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1990. Marijuana: Fact and Fiction. 27 November 2004. http://marijuana.drug-culture.com NORML National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. 27 November 2004. http://www.norml.org/ Scannel, Kate. Bush’s Painful Obsession With Medicinal Pot. American Alliance for Medicinal Cannabis, The Oakland Tribune 27 November 2004. http://www.letfreedomgrow.com
...ld expand our coutnry. I believe that it is unnecessary to have such strict laws against a plant that could benefit the country more than it is hurting it. Marijuana does not have any reports of violence because of use of the drug, but violent crimes have been committed because of drug cartels and gangs. If the laws against marijuana were lifted, there would be less violent drug crimes because access to marijuana would be easier. It has been proven that more violent crimes are committed with use of alcohol than there are from use of marijuana. Our president recently even stated that he does not believe that use of marijuana is any more dangerous than Alcohol. After researching this topic, I feel that more people today are coming to a realization that marijuana use is not dangerous and that our country would actually benefit from the legalization of cannabis.
A majority of those who support the legalization of marijuana hold that it should be removed from the criminal justice system. They argue that it should be regulated in a way similar to that of tobacco and alcohol. They hold that legalizing and controlling the drug will bring it under the rule of law and thus help in creating job opportunities in the formal economy (Caulkins, 2013). This, as they contend, will be better than the current state where it creates occupations in the illegal market. In addition, by legalizing marijuana, law enforcement resources would be freed for use in protecting the safety of the public. Also, local and state governments would obtain important new tax revenues from marijuana sales. The criminalization of marijuana use excessively harms people especially the youth and encourages high degrees of corruption and violence (Caulkins, 2013). This paper focuses on explaining the economic benefits of legalization of marijuana.
...pletely stop the distribution and sale of marijuana then it should do the next best thing: legalize it and tax it. It should put that tax revenue where it will do the most good, which is to work for society. Sometimes the lessor of two evils has to be chosen. Here, legalization is the obvious choice.
Ever since the federal criminalization of marijuana in the United States in 1937, there has been a large underground drug market (Paul). Much like how the prohibition of alcohol simply forced imbibers underground, those who chose to partake in marijuana are forced to stay away from the prying eye of the law because of present marijuana laws. This means the drug world is concealed from the average citizen, hiding the dangers of drug deals gone wrong, police shootings, and other dangerous occurrences. In a way this allows the government to mask the fact that their well-funded ‘War on Drugs’ is ineffective, a ‘War’ with a budget of roughly twenty billion dollars; which is not profoundly effective in the curbing the use of drugs (Jillette). If the average citizen does not know what is happening, in the eyes of the American zeitgeist, it is not happening. Criminalizing a harmless drug to cut down on its use simply turns its users into criminals, making the crime rate go up and clogging prisons with non-violent criminals. Marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco and the laws pertaining to it should reflect that.
Nationwide federal legalization of marijuana would allow Americans to cultivate and use marijuana to America’s great advantage. Billions of dollars saved in government expenditures and, revenue from taxation on the regulated sale of marijuana. Though the impact on an individual 's health is debatable, the smoking of marijuana on a daily basis is not nearly as harmful as smoking cigarettes daily or the excessive drinking of alcohol. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose, and those with chronic diseases have benefited from its use. Is there really any question? The time has come.
In 2010, approximately one in ten Americans abused marijuana; conversely, our country pays in excess of seven billion each year to implement the illegalization of this environmental material. A latest survey taken in 2011 shows marijuana has gradually become the desired drug for Americans. Generally, 17.4 million of the United States residents used marijuana in 2010 according to an analysis by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (Stirring the Pot, 2013). An economics instructor, Dr. Jeffrey Miron at Harvard University, concluded a report that established the estima...
Cannabis, more commonly known as marijuana, is a plant that people have been using recreationally for years. In fact, people have consumed marijuana since ancient times. Until 1906, the year the United States Congress passed the Pure Food and Drug Act. The debate on whether or not marijuana should be legalized in the United States has really blown up within the last decade. And finally, in 2012, Colorado became the first state to officially legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational uses. The prohibition of marijuana has gone on for far too long, and it is time for America to change its views.
The legal status of marijuana is one of the most disputed topics of today. Once completely frowned upon, marijuana’s legality was never questioned; however, fast forward to the present and one will notice that this negative stigma is beginning to fade away. The negative claims regarding marijuana are gradually becoming discredited by science. Without this negative propaganda, the positive aspects of marijuana are beginning to surface. Marijuana should be legalized because it is relatively harmless when compared to other legal substances, entails economic benefits, and would allow the authorities to focus resources on illegal activity that affects the people they took an oath to serve.
Legalization of marijuana has become an increasingly popular topic for debate in society with “sentiment in favor of legalization [increasing] by 20 [percentage] points in just over a decade,” bringing support for legalization to 52% (Dionne and Galston). The most common arguments for reforming current legislation are the following: enforcement wastes public resources, taxation can provide a new source of revenue, and enforcement of current laws is discriminatory (Dionne and Galston). It is necessary to look at the impact on the primary stakeholders by analyzing the various harms and benefits through application of the ethical theories of utilitarianism and deontology, in order to determine the solution that will result in the best possible outcome.
Marijuana has been around for an exceptionally long time. Marijuana is the third most common recreational drug in America (behind only alcohol and tobacco), and is used by nearly 100 million Americans. According to surveys, 25 million Americans have smoked marijuana within the past year and more than 14 million do so regularly despite harsh laws against its use. Our laws should reflect this, not deny it (Norml.org, 2013). Despite it’s many uses, Medical, recreational, and Industrial, the federal government still insists that the growth, cultivation, possession, and use of marijuana is a criminal offences, even though a plethora of evidence exists that the legalization of marijuana would have positive effects on America.
Today more and more people are deciding to side with the legalization of the substance, for America. For those who never give the legalization of marijuana a time of day or those who are hesitant on giving it a chance, are now starting to believe that the legalization of the substance would ultimately be helpful for the United States. As always, with every subject that rises up in the United States, there are people that are for the subject and also others that are against the subject. The legalization of Marijuana throughout the entire U.S. is one of the largest controversial arguments between both people and federal officers. As wrote in LegalizationOfMarijuana, “Prohibition must be weighed against the loss of personal freedom. Countries
People ask, “What good does legalizing Marijuana do? It is a drug for a reason.” Well, I, along with numerous others question, “What are those reasons? What good does keeping it illegal do?” One reason to legalize the “drug” is that it can save/earn the United States of America a great deal of money. “Nationwide, law enforcement officials made 1.5 million drug arrests in 2011, more than 40 perce...
For thousands of years human beings have attempted to find ways to get passed the struggles of their lives. With the pain of the world stopping people from enjoying simple pleasures, sometimes there is a need for help. Marijuana brings millions of people relief from the pain they feel on a day-to-day basis. This completely natural plant which helped so many people has puzzled the leaders of our nation for a long time. The THC in marijuana causes its users to experience a mild-huluciginic or high. The effect that marijuana has on a person has prevented the product from being legalized. Many other details about the plant, like the speculation of it being a gateway drug, have put another blockage on its legalization. Even though there are speculations about the plant, the benefit that it brings to the table most definitely out way its disadvantages. Marijuana can also alleviate several symptoms associated with cancer and Aids treatments and disorders. While Marijuana is effective as a medicine, it is also extremely lucrative. The economic benefits that Marijuana brings to the table are endless. Upon marijuana’s legalization, the economy would experience an immediate influx. Legalization of Marijuana would also drastically reduce crime in our cities and form a more productive society through its positive uses. The benefits that marijuana brings medically and economically are considerable enough to legalize its use medically or recreational.
How many more times are you going to be lied to by the government? The government has made it seem like the marijuana plant is a drug that has no good use and is bad for the people. But that’s not true. They keep it illegal for reasons to benefit them. Marijuana has so many reasons why it should be legal. It should be legalized for 3 main reasons:It is safer than other substances that our legal, it could help with a wide range of different medical conditions,and it could be very beneficial and help the economy and industry.
In recent years, there has been a strong push towards decriminalizing marijuana in Canada. Decriminalization refers to the act of removing criminal sanctions, such that possession of marijuana as well as consumption of it would not result in a criminal prosecution. Currently, under Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, possession of marijuana (up to 30 grams) carries a penalty of 6 months in jail as well as a $1000 fine for first offences with the penalty increasing for subsequent offences. (canadian criminal code) Advocates of marijuana decriminalization argue however that this puts a huge burden towards the legal system. More specifically, expenditures are being wasted towards the enforcement of the controlled drugs and substances act, which can be reallocated and distributed elsewhere. Additionally, since possession of marijuana involves criminal prosecution, law-abiding Canadian citizens who have no prior record but have been prosecuted for simple possession would have a difficult time applying jobs among many other problems, which can impact society as a whole. This paper will look into these arguments in detail and conclude that while decriminalization can lead to some economic benefits, the economic costs have been understated. By decriminalizing the drug, the public will be encouraged to use it leading to increase in both supply as well as demand, with none of the profits going to the government.