Despite government efforts to isolate and eliminate its use, it is clear that the use of marijuana is still very popular. There is an obvious problem concerning marijuana today. Governments on all three levels: local, state, and federal are trying desperately to find an appropriate policy involving marijuana. National polls show that more than 70% of the American people, from both ends of the political spectrum, support controlled access to marijuana for medicinal purposes. Despite fierce opposition from the federal government, voters in California and Arizona passed ballot initiatives in the fall of 1996 favoring the legalization of medicinal marijuana (Randall 33).
The government can take over this market and regulate it to make billions of dollars and decrease the amount of underage smoking at the same time. Many people look at marijuana as a bad thing, but alcohol and tobacco is no better and is actually worse. One could bet that, in a few years, all states will have a market for marijuana and many other countries, if not all, will too.
Those who are in favor for marijuana legalization consider the ‘War on Drugs’ as an expensive disappointment. Billions of needless dollars are spent to incarcerate individuals that choose to use a substance that is less harmful and addictive than alcohol or prescribed medications. In addition, pro-marijuana advocate also suggest that if marijuana were to be legalized, the government could control the substance, very much like tobacco and alcohol. A method to control the purity of distributed marijuana, tracking marijuana use in the United States, and collect tax on the revenue. Which allows the government to have ample money to ut... ... middle of paper ... ... put an end to the illegal distribution of the substance.
Unfortunately, even with all of this effort going in to stop illegal drug use, the “War on Drugs” is yet to produce almost any positive results. Because of this, politicians are urging the government to spend even more money to combat the seemingly endless influence of drugs on our culture. Perhaps the problem is not in the drugs, but the way the government is going about to stop them. Since the creation of the “War on Drugs”, marijuana has been the primary target. The government chose this drug because it is by far the most widely used illegal drug in The United States.
I Increased drug use will make the statistics regarding drug related crimes increase; even if the drugs were bought legally. The Black market wouldn't go away either. If the United States legalizes marijuana, they are, going... ... middle of paper ... ... Legalizing it would only lead to greater health problems in today's population. Also, legalization of marijuana, like the legalization of cigarettes and alcohol, only tells the people that it is okay for them to do it. Thousands of medical studies have shown that it does not do any good for anyone's body and it should stay illegal to prevent it from doing mass destruction on the population.
Courts would not be burdened by all of the marijuana cases that come before it. The cost of imprisoning marijuana users is enormous. If they were not convicted to begin with, we wouldn&rsquot need a place to put them. The war on drugs is accomplishing as much by chasing marijuana users as a fire fighter would by trying to put out a forest fire with one fire truck. If it is fought back in one place, it pops up in another.
The responsible disbursing of marijuana tax is being exemplified in California and Colorado. Be that as it may, people continue to argue against legalizing and taxing marijuana for such reasons as its negative health effects, the ability of individuals to evade taxes on cannabis, and its legalization spreading to other states. Those opposed to changing marijuana laws stand firm in their beliefs that spending tax dollars on incarcerating and policing marijuana users and distributors is beneficial to society. In turn, the current state of affairs remains unchanged, funneling billions of untaxed dollars in to the black market each year. If marijuana were legalized, the black market would see no other outcome than losing that capital to its competitor, state governments and hopefully the federal government as well.
In America, marijuana is the most used drug after alcohol and tobacco. Marijuana is used by millions of Americans, despite the harsh laws illegalizing the drug. Some states, such as Washington and Colorado have legalized marijuana for recreational use. Efforts to legalize the drug in other states have been unsuccessful such as Proposition 19 in California, which failed in 2010 despite uptight campaigns. Billions of dollars are spent at the state, local, and federal level to fight the use of marijuana.
Over seventy-five percent of the population agrees that this plant should be legal. But cannabis sativa, more commonly known as marijuana, is still illegal on a federal level in the United States. While states like Colorado and Washington start the public experimentation of legal recreational marijuana, other states clamp down on marijuana laws, hoping that the prohibition of this drug isn’t nearing it’s end like many people are predicting. This essay is going to focus on three main questions. Question one: Why are we continuing marijuana’s current prohibition based off of a one-hundred year old stigma, founded off of racist beliefs and false evidence?
Ever since the federal criminalization of marijuana in the United States in 1937, there has been a large underground drug market (Paul). Much like how the prohibition of alcohol simply forced imbibers underground, those who chose to partake in marijuana are forced to stay away from the prying eye of the law because of present marijuana laws. This means the drug world is concealed from the average citizen, hiding the dangers of drug deals gone wrong, police shootings, and other dangerous occurrences. In a way this allows the government to mask the fact that their well-funded ‘War on Drugs’ is ineffective, a ‘War’ with a budget of roughly twenty billion dollars; which is not profoundly effective in the curbing the use of drugs (Jillette). If the average citizen does not know what is happening, in the eyes of the American zeitgeist, it is not happening.