The Legalization Of Marijuana In Today's Society

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The Legalization of marijuana has been a  very controversial issue in today's society. Indeed many claims against marijuana  have been made in recent history, but the truths of marijuana are slowly starting to come to light. Unfortunately, these truths are under a lot of criticism due to the stereotypical view of what people see as a typical marijuana smoker. They are viewed as lazy, unmotivated, jobless and unproductive in today’s society who just want to get high. This of course isn’t true and is considered a generalization against an entire group of people. It is a result of over seventy years of propaganda and wrongful information spread by private or government organizations for their own personal gains. Many recent studies have shed a …show more content…

For example, the city of Boulder Colorado was the first city to legalize the recreational use of marijuana and was ranked as one of the best places to live in the United States and the city has a very low crime rate.(Friedersdorf) If marijuana was legal in the United States law enforcement agencies could focus their time and manpower toward real problems such as homicides, burglaries and domestic violence. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stated, "In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources prosecuting a crime that carries the same punishment as a traffic ticket." He is correct, states are spending citizen’s tax dollars on a 4 by 6 prison cells for a non- violent offender instead of spending tax dollars on schools, transportation, and health care. By legalizing marijuana not only does it take its dealers off the streets and cut the black markets drugs sales by 56% but it also limits the users by placing a legal age on buying from a dispensary just as it currently does with tobacco and alcohol. This would reduce the amount of violence on the streets from illegal …show more content…

By making marijuana legal to buy and sell at a dispensary the government could have a huge revenue on taxes collected from it. In Boulder Colorado the revenue from the taxes on recreational sales are filling the government coffers.(Friedersdorf). In 2012 Boulder

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