The legalization of marijuana is an interesting issue that is discussed often today. Many people agree that doing this would have many benefits, but others stand firm in the beliefs that it will do more harm than good. Since the government is not doing a very good job of stopping the import, export, and use of marijuana in the United States, they should stop trying to completely block it, and instead, regulate it. The legalization of marijuana would have many positive effects such as greater amounts of money for more important government responsibilities, more room in jails for the more serious offenders, and would end the use of marijuana by teens just to ?do something bad? and try and get away with it.
Why the government tries to stop something it can not, and spend millions and millions of dollars a year trying to do so, is unacceptable. Instead of trying to stop something that is impossible to stop, they should stop wasting valuable tax payer?s money on it, and regulate it. Could you imagine how much money the government could make from selling highly regulated amounts of marijuana to people? In the past five years, the government has spent approximately $300 of EACH Americans tax dollars to wage its war against marijuana.
That breaks down to about $8 billion a year by all levels of government to investigate, arrest, and incarcerate these marijuana law breakers. (Document B) If we were to take that $8 billion a year and put it towards better education or to improve the lives of the less fortunate, there might not be a demand for marijuana at all. This does not even include the cost to keep these people in jail, just to have them walk into the prison?s front doors. The cost to Americans to keep these users in jails comes out to about $450 Billion a year.(Document A) You can use your imagination to figure out what we can use that much money for. With that much, maybe we could build flying cars or teleporting machines.
The Report on Should the Government Spend More Money on Improving Roads and Highways or on Public Transportation
Should governments spend more money on improving roads and highways, or should governments spend more money on improving public transportation (buses, trains, subways)? Many people believe that governments should spend more money on improving roads and highways. However, other people think that more money should be spent on improving public transportation. Personally, I think that both of these ...
Another important issue that the legalization of marijuana would solve would be the overcrowding in all our jails. During the course of one year, 1.5 million people are put into jail due to some sort of drug related crime. Of those 1.5 million, 43% of them are related to marijuana arrests. That?s about 642,000 inmates. Out of these prisoners, 85% of them are in jail for a simple possession charge.(Document A) If American?s were to legalizeĀ marijuana, jails would be a lot less crowded and there would be room for the serious offenders, like the rapists and murderers. This would also solve the problem of dangerous people being set free before their time is up, or child molesters getting parole before their time is up because there just isn?t enough room. Who would you rather have in jail? A person that raped a little 10 year old girl or a guy that had a single innocent joint in his pocket that he was going to smoke because he had a long day and just happened to get caught? I know who I would choose.
Everyone knows that teenagers like the thrill of breaking the rules, and sometimes the law, just so they can do something bad and get away with it. It?s the same with marijuana. Many kids used the drug just to do or to try something that is bad or that they know they aren?t supposed to do. If marijuana were to be legalized, this entire idea would be removed from teenager?s brains and the use of marijuana by high schoolers would be reduced by a lot. The lowering of the use by students would have many positive effects also. For example, there would be less car accidents due to marijuana?s effect on a person?s senses because not as many teens would be using it just to break the law. (Document D & E)
The Essay on Marijuana Decriminalization Or Legalization
In high school when I first learned about the alluring world of illegal pharmaceuticals, I was scared. My fear was based on all my prior knowledge of drugs was from government propaganda and popular beliefs. Now Im older, and more experienced about drugs. When did the America first begin to be wildly afraid of a plant that has been on this continent since our forfathers ()? Americas fear of ...
The legalization of marijuana would solve many problems that we have in our society today including more money for more important things besides trying to stop the drug smuggling business, reducing the number of inmates in jails due to marijuana charges, and the reduction of use by teens because they want to do something wrong and get away with it. The main result of the legalization of marijuana would be the increase in funds for other government projects that are more important than trying to halt the marijuana business. If all marijuana counter-actions were stopped, that would free up several hundred billion dollars per year. Imagine how many computers that would buy for the schools down town, or how many pair of shoes that could buy for the less fortunate, or how many meals that could buy for the homeless?