Drugs are such a controversy and people have such strong opinions about whether they should be legal or illegal. I dont have a strong opinion on this topic; Im easily swayed. For the most part though, I think that they should be legalized because people do it anyways and if they were legal the government could regulate their use and sale more, the government should be receiving the profits of the drug business rather than dealers, marijuana has most of the same effects as cigarettes, and its been proven over and over how prohibition doesnt seem to work. Each year, the government wastes $20 billion dollars on the war against drugs, but it doesnt seem to do any good (Liberty For All, online magazine).
Marijuana is the number one cash crop in the United States so it makes sense that the government receives at least the taxes off of this industry. The estimated value of U.S.
marijuana crop is $32 Billion dollars. Think of how useful all that money would be to the government. I dont see how it matters how we get the money. Another argument for the legalization of drugs is that by having government control than all drugs would be safer. We could have specialized farmers growing cannabis and chemists mixing other chemicals to make drugs. The government would be able to manage how much of each drug is out in the United States and they can regulate so much more.
I dont think any of this will make it easier to obtain and I think people will still be looked down upon if they are a heavy drug user, just like heavy smokers or heavy drinkers. The most important thing for me is that people do it anyways; they always have and most likely always will. Drug prohibition has not stopped 30 million people from trying cocaine and 60 million people from trying marijuana. Prohibition also has not stopped the number of heroin users from increasing by 150% and the number of cocaine users from increasing by 10,000%. Moreover, prohibition has not kept drugs out of the hands of children: in 1988 54% of high school seniors admitted to having tried illicit drugs; 88% said it was fairly easy or very easy to obtain marijuana: and 54% said the same about cocaine (Boaz 229).
The Term Paper on Marijuana Prohibition Is A Violation Of First Amendment Rights
... Prohibition"). Drug smugglers tend to carry and sell hard drugs in extremely potent form (i. e. cocaine) for the same reason. The federal government ... concluded that, "Marijuana has been accepted as capable of relieving distress of great numbers of very ill people, and doing ... in young people. [These] beliefs have not been substantiated by scientific evidence." Common myths, such as "Marijuana is much ...
Nobody can deny these facts, and these are even facts from the times where the war on drugs was passing stricter laws. None of the laws seemed to make a difference accept if you get caught with drugs, you have a longer sentence. The sentence for marijuana possession usually averages longer than a murder sentence.
I really dont think its worse to have marijuana than kill another human being; that doesnt even begin to make sense to me. I think that, like many other things in history, drugs will someday be legal. I mean coffee, gin, and tobacco all used to be illegal, but now all are in regular use in the United States. The Netherlands, who is the only country I know to legalize marijuana, surprisingly has a lower percentage of 10th graders who have tried marijuana when compared to the United States. Maybe people wouldnt do it once its made legal because its not so risky and rebellious. I think its tough to make marijuana illegal but make cigarettes legal; they are very similar and in many ways marijuana is better for you.
It cost so much money to enforce a law when so many people are abusing it, so why not just make drugs legal? We could profit from their legalization financial, it would provide safer products, and people do it more when its illegal. The only answer I see is doing away with prohibition of drugs, I think by doing this drug use will decrease, exactly like it did when we prohibited alcohol and like in The Netherlands..
The Essay on Why Marijuana Should Be Legal 3
... illegal. Every year, federal, state, and local governments participate in “The War on Drugs”, spending billions to imprison peaceful people who enjoy smoking marijuana. ... reasons why marijuana should be legal, and even more reasons as to why it shouldn’t be illegal. I mean ... people smoke marijuana without fear for arrest. If it were to become completely legal, the government could even tax it and make ...
