The legalization of marijuana has been questionable for many many years now, but
the government just seems to always decline. I feel that marijuana should be legalized.
There are many reasons for and against legalization, but the arguments for it outweigh the
arguments against it. I believe marijuana should be legalized for three main reasons.
Legalization will bring in much needed tax dollars, it will free up prisons and their
resources, and it will save the U.S tons of money.
If marijuana is legalized, it can be taxed by the federal government, like alcohol
and cigarettes are now. If this is done, not only will the government save millions of
dollars on searching for marijuana, the government will make billions of dollars off the sale
of marijuana which can be used for drug education programs to help educate the youth of
America. In the United States, all levels of government (federal, state, and local
authorities) participate in the "War on Drugs." We currently spend billions of dollars every
year to chase peaceful people who happen to like to get high. These people get locked up
in prison and the taxpayers have to foot the bill. We have to pay for food, housing, health
care, attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses to lock these people up. This is
extremely expensive! If you must know, it costs taxpayers like you and me $42,000 a year
to keep just one criminal in jail. That's more than twice the amount citizens spend on
sending their children to school. Taxpayers only spend a dissapointing $13,000 a year for
public schooling. We could save billions of dollars every year as a nation if we stop
wasting money locking people up for having marijuana. In addition, if marijuana were
legal, the government would be able to collect taxes on it, and would have a lot more
money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes.
According to The Report of the Task Force on Cannabis Regulation to the Center for the
Study of Drug Policy, "marijuana is one of the largest tax-exempt industries in the country
today." 10-15 billion dollars a year could be made simply by legalizing cannabis. Hemp,
the nonpsychoactive version of the plant, has many, many uses but is outlawed by the U.S.
government. Hemp is an incredibly strong fiber that can be used for ropes, clothes and
The United States is a nation with the largest prison population and crime rates in the world. When the governmental controlled facilities were in a deficit where they lacked funds and space could not house the inmates, private prisons were developed. Along with the solution of private of prisons, the controversy concerning the funding of health care, recovery and other expenses have been one of the fundamental concerns for the American Justice System. Both the private and public facilities came together and join a partnership where the government facility agreed to bear the expenses of healthcare and other medical exams, and the private facility would find spaces and funds to house inmates. However, to continuously gain profit, the sentencing
There is a new form of prisons called private prisons and they are costing more than just convict’s time
Every year the incarceration rates increase more and more, in the year 1990 the number of people in federal prisons was 400,000 and in the year 2014 it had increase to a little over 1,400,000. The increase in the number of inmates also increases the number of government spending in the prison which takes away from education, healthcare, transportation etc.
Miron, Jeffrey A, “The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition.” The Marijuana Policy Project. June 2005. PDF file.
The National Association of State Budget Officers expenditure report from the fiscal year 2009 states that 5% of state spending, about $48 billion annually, supports corrections (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 2011). The federal government is spending 1.8% of our tax dollars on prisons (Frugal Dad, 2011), which amounts to about $45 billion (Williams, 2009). So, it seems that the states and federal government are sharing the burde...
Would you believe that America has spent around five hundred billion dollars on prisons.(Butterfield) Why are the tax payers of America spending so much money on prisons and not other effective solutions to stopping crime? The American legislation is closed minded about reducing crime. They believe that prison is the one and only solution. Since crime keeps occurring, more and more prisons need to be built and kept running for the increasing numbers of inmates that are pouring into prisons. Prison may be part of the solution, but there are other alternatives to help criminals. If we were to incorporate facilities like drug rehabilitation and job training into the criminal justice system then crime would be greatly reduced. Prisoners would commit fewer crimes after the experience of these facilities, therefore reducing the cost of building and maintaining prisons. The end result will be that the American tax payer's dollars will be available to go to more productive things than prisons.
A controversial topic that has spread throughout the nation of the United States of America, and that is also widely popular, is the issue on cannabis. Cannabis is infamous for its natural state as a plant, and also for its ability for allowing people of all kinds to become “high”. A bad name has been given since there has been much negativity and false claims towards the subject. Cannabis is used medicinally to help those in need to aid to medical disabilities, disorders, as well as chronic pains. This plant is an issue through the laws of congress and year after year, lobbyist to this day are still fighting for its legality. In this paper, I will present an argument in support of legalizing the use of cannabis, and then argue that this argument has certain flaws that
Legalizing Marijuana has been a common subject for debate in the United States. As the debate continues on in the political system, marijuana has become the most popular illegal drug in the United States. There are many arguments for and against the legalization of marijuana ranging from the effects on the mind and body to the economic possibilities after legalization. Both sides embrace strong facts and stronger support, but much of these facts consist of similar research with contradicting results. The side that tends to have the most and the strongest support in the most prominent arguments, economics, health, and criminal association, is the group for legalizing marijuana.
However, legalization will be profitable to global economies in two ways. It will allow for money spent on drug law enforcement to be spent more wisely and will increase revenue. There have been escalating costs spent on the war against drugs and countless dollars spent on rehabilitation. Every year in the United States, ten billion dollars are spent on enforcing drug laws alone. Drug violators accounted for about forty percent of all criminals in federal prisons (Rosenthal 1996). In 1989, a Republican county executive of Mercer County, N.J., estimated that it would cost approximately one
One of the most controversial topics in the news today is the legalization of marijuana. Supporters believe that the drug is not harmful and can have numerous benefits. However, opponents argue that marijuana can lead to addiction and other more dangerous drugs. In the end, marijuana should be legal based on economic, medicinal, and philosophical factors.
Specialized government funded programs such as Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) cost around $7 billion and are in danger of being defunded to save money (Whitehouse). Marijuana tax revenues exceed $6 billion and would help less fortunate women in need of assistance when they are raising a child. On the state level Alabama has a projected profit of $8.9 million in tax revenues alone from Marijuana sales (Miron). States could increase pay or set up a better retirement for police, firemen, teachers, or any other underpaid public service. Also, the medical sales of marijuana would create an alternative source of natural medicine that has less harmful side-effects than some prescription medicines. Another more practical use for the cannabis plant itself is “hemp”. Hemp is another variety of cannabis that is used for mainly for its fiber, oil, and seeds. The fiber can be used to make anything from clothes to cars as...
Many years of cumulative custody and mounting corrections are amply documented and are familiar topics to the public and bureaucrats alike. Over the last 4 decades, the US has seen a radical increase in the usage of correctional facilities to combat crime. Accordingly, incarceration rates have climbed, with state prisons population rise steeply by more than 700% since the 1970s. Presently, more than 1% of the general adult population is incarcerated in prison or jail nationally. This upsurge has come at a colossal price to taxpayers. Over the last 2 decades, States’ corrections costs comprising prisons, parole and probation has practically quadrupled, which makes it the quickest growing budget article behind Medicaid. While these numbers are perturbing, what is not clearly understood is that in some cases, expenditure at correctional facilities account for only a small proportion of the monetary commitment a state made when it condemn a delinquent to prison. Exis...
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...
Walters, John P. "No surrender: the drug war saves lives." National Review 27 Sept. 2004: 41. Student Edition. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
The Topic of Legalizing Marijuana has been a very conversational argumentative issue in the American society; moreover in the American politics today. There are many good arguments on why Marijuana should be Legalize and my argument is based on facts and supporting details to prove why Marijuana should be legalize. The Legalization of Marijuana would be profitable to our government and economy, according to Evan Wood who is the founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy; The U.S taxpayers have spent an estimated $2.5 trillion on the war on drugs. The Legalization of Marijuana would have a medical use, and also useful in some religions; after all Legalizing Marijuana would eliminate the cost of keeping Marijuana illegal which cost the U.S government in excess of billions annually.