In this country, we are locked in a war we simply cannot win. We strive to protect over 10,000 miles of border, against enemies who are driven by the lure of a huge profit.
We fought a version of this war before with prohibition, and we lost that one. All that has really resulted from this war is the overcrowding of prisons, the expansion of law enforcement’s ability to infringe on the personal lives of ordinary citizens, paranoia and distrust. If its not obvious already, I am referring to the war on drugs, marijuana in specific. Why spend millions of dollars fighting a war that can not be won? Legalizing marijuana would not only make the government money, but also improve society as a whole. To most the financial reasons for ending the war are the most convincing. For example, it costs over $30,000 per year to house a prisoner - this does not include processing and legal fees. There are over 1.5 million non-violent drug law offenders in prison right now, and this number is increasing daily. That means we are spending a minimum of $45 billion per year keeping former tax-paying citizens locked up with murderers and rapists. When these people get out of jail, they will have criminal records which will make it nearly impossible to get a decent job. Most of whom had jobs and were contributing to the economy in some way.
The United States spend $37 billion per year funding police efforts to fight the war on drugs.. Recent evidence suggests the CIA has been involved in drug-trafficking to fund its own private wars. Currently there is over $150 billion worth of drug traffic that remains untaxed. If you figure a tax rate of 15%, that is a total of $22.5 billion of taxes that America doesn't see. The U.S. Treasury estimates America wastes a minimum of
$104.5 billion per year fighting a war that can not be won. Meanwhile crime rates continue to rise (because of the huge profits made possible by the risks involved in the drug trade as drugs remain illegal), and the quality of education, medical care and environmental protection falls due to lack of money in the budget.
The problem with drugs is not their effect, it is the corruption that is tied to the huge profits that doing illegal business commands. Increasing penalties for drug crimes will just increase the prices and thereby the profits for people willing to take the risk.
Along with these profits will come increasing war in our neighborhoods as gangs and
It’s OK to Smoke Weed “A marijuana high can enhance core human mental abilities. It can help you to focus, to remember, to see new patterns, to imagine, to be creative, to introspect, to empathically understand others, and to come to deep insights. If you don’t find this amazing you have lost your sense of wonder. Which, by the way, is something a high can bring back, too.” - Sebastian Marincolo (Goodreads). Marijuana could be considered one of the most controversial drugs of the past century
to make marijuana illegal so he could make a name for himself. It stayed outlawed until November 6, 2012, when Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize the sale and possession of cannabis for recreational use since 1937. The legalization of marijuana has become a hot-button issue in the last several years with fifty-eight percent of Americans wanting the drug to be legalized, surging ten percentage points since 2012. (Swift, 2013) A strong reason why many people changed their mind
This theory consists of the belief that marijuana is a gateway drug. Weed could eventually lead users to dependence on more addictive drugs. “If marijuana is legalized, it could lead to more cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy”, says correctional officer Joseph G. Brown in the Department of Justice for the Drug Enforcement Administration
The controversy over the legalization of marijuana has been an important and seriously debated topic for many years. The way people look at marijuana and the use of it has changed drastically over the past few years. Marijuana used to look like any other harmful drug out there, no real purpose except for relieving stress. However, today many people see marijuana as an opportunity in the medical world. Unlike what has been thought for many past years, marijuana does actually have multiple good sides
to be dealt with in today’s society. However, based on its medical value and economic benefits, the marijuana has proven to outweigh its negatives with numerous other positives. Although marijuana is legal in 29 states, the fact still remains that weed is still that under federal law, marijuana is classified as a schedule I drug which is the highest classification, also including heroin and ecstasy. 2. According to an analysis done by [ACLU], marijuana arrests now account for more than half of all
huge revenue producer for taxpayers. You can tax it as much as you want. When its comes to taxing marijuana the state can have any tax they want on it. States can profit millions of dollars off this tax. The tax is about 13 percent in colorado on weed. When legalized in colorado in january alone it made roughly 2 million dollars in taxes. This presents a huge expansion in anything tax money pays for. You can build and repair more roads and pay workers of the state more. The taxes you pay for state
result in damaging outcomes, so why ban something that has effective results?... ... middle of paper ... ...ld today. In the future marijuana will move from dispensaries into pharmaceutically places such as cvs and wallgreens. Instead of going to a “weed shop” or getting marijuana on the streets, years from now we will have referrals from doctors to get a prescription at a local pharmacy. The world is changing and so is society. If we continue to be close-minded and think marijuana is bad because of
marijuana is legal, for both medicinal and recreational use in 24 states and The District of Columbia; with that, I don’t see why it can’t be legalized in all 50. Marijuana has more than 50 different uses, the main one being for medicinal purposes. I weed were to become legal, it would clear out a lot of space in our prisons. Which would help us to rebuild our economy. Also, it would fuel economic growth by creating a new income for the United States. People argue that marijuana is a gateway drug, meaning
music in 1969 (Marijuana History). In recent years, marijuana seems to have become more accepted in society. Although recreational use of the drug is still illegal in the United States, it has become common to hear of teenagers experimenting with weed. It seems that teens today have an invincibility complex towards the drug and do not fear any of the risks associated with it. According to a 1994 Los Angeles Times article by Rose Apodaca, this is ironically a direct result of the teenagers’ parents
"Marijuana. Pot. Weed. Grass. Ganga. Dope. Herb. Cannabis. Reefer. Mary Jane. If you don’t partake in it, you know someone who does. From smoking, to vaping, to cooking, to baking, to ingestible oils, to tinctures, to topicals, and to dabbing, there’s so many ways to enjoy the effects of cannabis. But when we think weed, we don’t think success. Weed has long been characterized by “stoner-like” caricatures we’ve seen in movies or on tv, like Cheech & Chong, Pineapple Express, Half Baked, or Workaholics
Marijuana also known as weed, is a green mixture of dry, shredded leaves and flowers of a hemp plant known as Cannabis sativa. Research has shown that marijuana has been around since the 1920s. People use marijuana because of the after affects. Studies have shown marijuana makes you feel delightful, it increases satisfaction while smoking, if you’re stressed, after smoking the marijuana you’ll be on cloud nine and the stress will no longer be present. Society has influenced people to smoke marijuana
There are two theories that need to be discussed when looking at the legalization of marijuana, the moral model of addiction and the enslavement theory addiction. The very discussion in the shift to make the legalization of marijuana a reality shows a nation trying to move pass the moral model of addiction as it pertains to marijuana. This model implies that addiction is the result of poor choices addicts make because of lack of willpower or moral strength. This model could be viewed as to what
they've only made things worse." (Simmons 111) The Arizona proposition garnished an even wider margin of separation between the fore's an against in a sixty five percent support tally. Ethan Nadelmann insists that " these propositions are not about legalization or decriminalization. They're about initiating some non radical, commonsense approaches to drug policy." General Barry McCaffery disagrees saying, "I... ... middle of paper ... ... count in dope smokers 2. Possible malformations in children
also claimed America’s biggest problem was drug use and tried concealing information on weed in order to start this war on drugs. The Culture High, a documentary on the journey of weed in America, explains Nixon’s role in marijuana. The documentary also covers much, much more. The Culture High is a two-hour long documentary covering everything on the criminalization of weed: from those opposing its legalization, to those making money from it, the health benefits, derailing marijuana myths, the history