Debate Over Marijuana Legalization

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As a high school student you see someone who’s been smoking marijuana nearly every day. You see your classmates and people you look up to high on a daily basis. So you ask yourself, why is it prohibited? What makes it worse than tobacco or alcohol both of which are legal? Why is the country having such a heated debate on the issue and why is marijuana legal some places and illegal in others? What sets it apart from other drugs and are there any benefits? I’ve always been really curious about marijuana and I like to hear the sides of both arguments.

I look back at to when I was younger around the age of eight or so, and only about 10 years later support for marijuana reform has grown by nearly 20%. Why has 20% of the population decided it’s time to end prohibition, what’s the difference from then to now? This topic is not only intriguing to me but to most the people in the country it’s one of the biggest topics in the nation and I want to get to the bottom of it. According to MPP.org (Marijuana Policy Project) “In 2012, on average one person was arrested every 48 seconds for marijuana possession.” That’s 749,825 people arrested in 2012 alone (nearly a million people!) Of those 749,825 people 658,231 were arrested for possession alone. Did you know it costs nearly $47,000 a year to house an inmate? So if you were to house all 749,825 of those arrested in 2012 for just a year it would cost approximately $35,241,775,000 in tax payer’s dollars. Imagine what we could do with the extra 35 billion dollars. Granted this is theoretical and not all of the 749,825 people were found guilty and incarcerated but it puts things in perspective. From 1991- 2003 not only did marijuana arrests nearly triple, but the number of teens trying marijuana...

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...uite 400 Washington, D.C. 20002. Info@mpp.org.

Written:

• 58 percent support marijuana legalization, poll says - CBS News. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57608877/

• Drug War Clock | DrugSense. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock

• Legal history of cannabis in the United States - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved November 5, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_history_of_cannabis_in_the_United_States

• Marijuana Policy Project - Home. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://MPP.org

• Race and the Drug War | Racial Discrimination in Drug Law Enforcement | Drug Policy Alliance. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.drugpolicy.org/race-and-drug-war

• War on drugs a trillion-dollar failure - CNN.com. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/branson-end-war-on-drugs/

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