Pro Legalization of Marijuana

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Legalization is a much-debated topic that has been a minor issue up until the past few years at least for marijuana. Apart from marijuana though are other schedule I and schedule II drugs that can be made legal under the right circumstances. The war on drugs has been has been a complete failure despite the increase in funding that our government is provided. Also the drug policies themselves are flawed. However, with law enforcement and the government not giving up entirely with the war on drugs it will be a while before they realize the pros far outweigh the cons. Legalizing drugs for both recreational and medicinal use will provide the government another source of revenue, will lessen the overcrowding in the judicial system, erase the drug and crime relation, and may ironically turn people away from doing drugs.

Legalization will bring many benefits to the US government one of which being a gigantic source of revenue. If the government were to begin enforcing drug laws less and tax the drugs that will be legalized the government could claim approximately ten billion dollars at the least. This number could climb depending on the amount of sales with the sin tax as well as when the government decided to pull the plug completely on enforcing drug policies. There are two different views people can look at for how this might come to fruition. A libertarian model, which closely resembles the libertarian party, where there is very limited government except for a few cases mainly dealing with sale to a minor; the other model being the government would manage how the drugs are made as well as the sales. In between these two models lies an approach that will be successful (Nadelmann).

It is one in which the government...

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... will be many benefits that not only citizens of the US will see but also the government. The government will bring in more revenue through the distribution of these drugs for both recreational and medicinal use. Jails and prisons will not be as crowded as they are now and the public will not have to pay as much money to the government to build more jails and prisons. Selling or consuming drugs will no longer be seen as a crime unless of course someone was to sell to a minor therefore. Finally, even if drugs are made legal there are plenty of people who still will not engage in the risky behavior and those who will quit altogether because they will find that consuming drugs the legal way will be boring. Hopefully our government will realize the pros far outweigh the cons and will legalize sooner rather than later.

(Nadelmann) (Schaffer Library of Drug Policy)

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