Marijuana use, in the USA, is a hotly debated topic. The federal government has officially labeled it illegal, but 21 state governments have legalized it for medical use (Lee 2014). Two of these states, Colorado and Washington, have recently legalized marijuana for recreational use also (Lee 2014). Despite these minor strides towards legalization, there were 1,531,251 arrests for drug use in 2011 (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2012). Nearly half of those were marijuana related, and over 85% of those were for marijuana possession alone (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2012). The resources required to handle these arrests, the relatively negligible risk marijuana poses to a user, and the positive effects that de-stigmatizing marijuana use may have, are all reasons that marijuana use for recreation should be legalized.
The resources needed for marijuana criminalization are staggering. It is estimated, for example, that the current marijuana related prison population is around 40,000 (Caulkins et al. 2012). Since it cost nearly $30,000 per year to incarcerate an inmate, the total cost for marijuana incarceration is around $1.2 billion (Caulkins et al. 2012). This number does not even account for the cost of local police officers enforcing marijuana laws. Nor does it account for cost to process the approximately 750,000 marijuana related arrests. The ALCU estimated that states alone spent $3.6 billion to enforce marijuana laws (Edwards et al. 2013).
With all the resources spent towards marijuana criminalization, one would expect that marijuana to be a highly dangerous drug. At the very least marijuana should be more dangerous than alcohol which is legal. This does not seem to be the case. In terms of death, alcohol accounts for a...
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...in-the-u.s/2011/crime-in-the-u.s.-2011/persons-arrested/persons-arrested).
Frost, Lauren, Elizabeth Mostofsky, Joshua I. Rosenbloom, Kenneth J. Mukamal, and Murray A. Mittleman. 2013. “Marijuana use and long-term mortality among survivors of acute myocardial infarction.” American Heart Journal 165(2):170–175. Retrieved (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23351819).
Goode, Erich. 2005. Drugs in American Society. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Company.
Lee, Jolie. 2014. “Which States Have Legalized Medical Marijuana?” USA Today. Retrieved April 23, 2014 (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/01/06/marijuana-legal-states-medical-recreational/4343199/).
Sidney, Stephen et al. 1997. “Marijuana Use and Mortality.” American Journal of Public Health 87(4):585–590. Retrieved (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1380837/pdf/amjph00503-0059.pdf).
Fackelmann, Kathleen. “Marijuana: Useful medicine or dangerous drug?” Consumers’ Research Magazine May 1997: Vol.80 Issue 5 page 15. http://ehostvgw8.epnet.com/delivery.asp?…&startHitNum= 10&rlStartHit=10&delType=FT.
In this article Marcus Bachhuber and his colleagues study the how states with medical cannabis laws show lower overdose deaths from opioid. The study looks at time-series analysis from death certificates from 1999 to 2010 (para. 3). There is a graph that shows that people in legal cannabis states are living longer and overdosing less than illegal states. Along with the legalization of cannabis comes a decrease in opioid death which can be seen immediately in the years after. This article shows that when people use marijuana there is a lower chance of dying from opiates and that cannabis can be a great pain reliever without the consequences of hard pharmaceuticals and heroin. This paper is written in easy to follow terminology.
ProCon.org. (2014, March 4). Medical Marijuana: History of the American Medical Association (AMA) and Marijuana, ProCon.org, Retrieved from: http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000088
Just as alcohol prohibition during the 20’s and 30’s was not successful, marijuana prohibition has not been successful either, as evidenced by its current and increasing popularity in the United States. According the deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Mr. Paul Armentano, marijuana was made illegal in the United States with the passing of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 (2014). Later, Congress classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substance Act of 1970 (Armentano, 2014). Since then, hundreds of thousands of Americans have been arrested for the possession, distribution and use of marijuana. According to Professor Katherine Beckett, “there were 829,625 marijuana arrests” (Beckett, et.al., N.D.) in 2006 and that number is increasing. The debate on whether or not to legalize marijuana for recreational use has raged for decades but is beginning to see the light of day with the recent state-level victories. With Washington and Colorado guiding the way, the country as a whole is considering the issue of whether or not marijuana should be legalized. If legalized, tax revenues could potentially generate millions, if not billions, of dollars annually for state and federal coffers. Marijuana should be legalized. Legalization will not increase usage nor will the current prohibition decrease usage; however tax revenue from the distribution and sale of marijuana could benefit many state programs and even possibly eliminate governmental deficits in the future.
Marijuana, the most abused drug in America, has had a lot of publicity recently. Marijuana has caused multiple economic problems within the U.S. A controversial question has arisen from the increased popularity and troubles of this drug. The question is whether or not the U.S. government should legalize marijuana possession and sale in the country. Many Americans believe that the drug should be legalized for various reasons; others, however, are against the legalization of the dangerous drug. While legalization has both pros and cons, the positives of legalizing marijuana for those people over the age of twenty-one far outweigh the negative aspects of legalization.
Brownstein, Joseph. "Marijuana vs. Alcohol: Which Is Really Worse for Your Health?" 21 January 2014 . LiveScience. Web. 10 April 2014.
National Institute on Drug Abuse. "The Nagative consequences of Marijuana Use." Marijuana (Contemporary Issues Companion). Tardiff, Joseph, ed. Farmington Hills: Greenhaven Press, 2008. 34-44. Print
Marijuana has been widely mis-viewed as a bad thing; society classifies marijuana as a drug, parents warn their children to stay away from marijuana because it is bad; but those are all misconceptions. But in reality, it is actually a very beneficial drug to many degrees. Marijuana actually has numerous favorable effects, such as helping people escape the cruel reality for a moment, helping patients who are almost at the end of their lives feel better, and helping the economy recover. In addition, marijuana’s side effects are all due to human abusing it, like the old saying goes, too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. Although marijuana users have a history of not doing so well in life, marijuana should still be made available to anyone above the legal drinking age and be regulated like tobacco and alcohol; due to its assuaging effects to the economy and human’s mental health.
Comparing alcohol to marijuana and the effects of it are very different. Marijuana is much more safe then alcohol in the the way your body reacts and you decision making. The way you think and thought process is different. Viole...
"Marijuana Use and Its Effects." WebMD - Better Information. Better Health. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. .
Earlywine, Mitchell. Understanding Marijuana: A new look at the scientific evidence. New York Oxford University Press. 2002.
Stanley, Janet E., Stanley J. Watson, and John A. Benson. Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. Washington D.C.: National Academy P, 1999.
Marijuana is the third most common leisure drug in the United States after alcohol and tobacco. Millions of Americans smoke marijuana despite the strict laws against its use. Marijuana is less dangerous compared to tobacco or alcohol. Smoking marijuana can cause breathing problems and coughing just like cigarettes and some people get addicted after using for a while. Regulating and legalizing marijuana will bring Americas greatest cash crop under law, create economic opportunities and jobs in the formal economy as opposed to the underground market. Adopting a legally controlled market for marijuana will ensure that consumers buy the products from a safe and legal source. Marijuana has been approved in some states for medical uses to ease the effects of different health challenges. Colorado and Washington legalized m...
Sidney, S., Beck, J. E., Tekawa, I. S., Quesenberry Jr., C. P., & Friedman, G. D. (1997). Marijuana Use and Mortality. American Journal Of Public Health, 87(4), 585-590.
Reinarman, Craig, et al. “Who Are Medical Marijuana Patients? Population Characteristics from Nine California Assessment Clinics.” Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 43.2(2011):128-135. Web. 6 Sept. 2011.