Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Benefits of the legalization of marijuana
Abstract summary of the benefits of marijuana
Criminalizing marijuana
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Benefits of the legalization of marijuana
Since the mid 1930’s Marijuana has been deemed illegal on a federal level. This was stemmed from pure propaganda and incorrect facts which in turn brainwashed individuals deterring them away from the positive aspects of the drug. Sense the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 our countries perception of Marijuana has completely spun out of control preventing our country to reap its positive benefits. These benefits are contrasted with the utter failure of prohibition in the respective articles detailed in this synthesis.
Many believe the prohibition against marijuana has been a complete failure in numerous ways, but how exactly has it effected our country? In the article “Top Ten Reasons to End Marijuana Prohibition” by the website www.mppp.org;
As per the FBI since 1995 more twelve million citizens of the United States have been arrested for marijuana related charges, 80% of which were simply for possession of the drug. While some states punishments for possession are significantly less harmful some still treat it as a serious crime. For example in the article “A Tale of Two Drug Wars” by Barcott, Bruce of the Rolling Stone Magazine, explains that in Louisiana if you are caught with a gram of marijuana and have prior convictions you face a minimum mandatory sentence of thirteen and a third years in prison. Considering that the cost to house an inmate for a year costs a little over $28,000 a thirteen year sentence would cost taxpayers $364000. Instead of using our tax dollars for more important things to improve our country we are paying a significant amount of money to house inmates for a simple possession charge. Seeing these eye popping statistics regarding the amount spent to continue the prohibition and ruining countless lives for petty possession really made me think is continuing the Prohibition
We now know the disadvantages but what are the benefits of ending the prohibition? Going back to the source Top Ten Reasons to Legalize Marijuana Now by Carmen Yarruso she states not only the negatives of prohibition but also describes the positives of ending it. One of the most notable benefits of ending the prohibition against marijuana would be reinstating our ability to grow and utilize hemp for manufacturing purposes. As described Hemp can be used for an abundance of textiles such as paper, clothing, fuel, and plastics. However under current federal law hemp is illegal to grow in the united states preventing us from utilizing its recourses. She also details we can prevent supplying Mexican drug cartels with an exponential amount of funding from their marijuana smuggling operations by legalization of the plant. This not only would cut the cartels funding significantly it would also rack in millions of dollars in taxes for the federal government to take a large chunk out of our federal debt. To support this statement in another article “The Tale of Two Drug Wars” explains that in the state of Washington where marijuana is legal they are expecting to make 400 million dollars from recreational marijuana taxes which is not including taxes for medical marijuana.
The opinion of Marijuana during the 70’s was much more relaxed than it is today. Approval of Marijuana by 27 states, new medical studies, and its consequences on those convicted from use of the most common general, the argument about marijuana in this country is: should Marijuana continue to be given to citizens based on its health effects, medicinal values, and costs to the country? The reasons why this argument is so important are great. As previously stated, Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal drug in the world, and with millions of people using it regularly and almost 100 million that have ever used it in this country, the laws behind this drug hold great influence. It is because of this and the immergence of new evidence, that the justification behind prohibition of this drug is being rethought scientifically, socially, and economically. The use of Marijuana as both medicine and a recreational drug is being thoroughly questioned in the US. 27 states have Marijuana approved in some form, many of those for medical purposes however those users can still, and do get placed into prison by federal law. Currently, 830,00 people a year are in trouble with the law in regards to Marijuana and numbers seem to be on an uphill trend . Furthermore, the US invests 30 billion a year into the drug war, half of which is dedicated to Marijuana. Many are questioning its success all together. Both imprisonment and the war cost our country, and therefore our people, money. A change in laws is going to have a dramatic affect on America.
A big step in lowering incarceration rates is federally regulating marijuana. About 64% of inmates convicted of drug offenses have no history of violent crimes. These inmates need rehabilitation not incarceration. Possession of marijuana should be treated more like a traffic violation rather than a reason to send people to jail. The government would still collect their money and in turn not have to pay the costs of housing a prisoner.
The cost of marijuana prohibition is gigantic. Including policing, court appearances, and incarceration, the bill on taxpayers is endless and a large amount of this money is for cases of simple marijuana possession. Daniel Egan and Jeffrey A. Miron estimate that, “[L]egalizing marijuana would save...$8 billion per year in prohibition enforcement costs”(Budgetary,17). This is a huge amount of money that could make its way elsewhere into the infrastructure like drug awareness and prevention. Not to mention the priceless amount of time given back to the police forces to peruse more harmful crimes. In their report the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs finds “[A]pproximately 50,000 drug-related charges in 1999.... Overall, 54%... were for possession [of cannabis]”(Cannabis,130). As far as budget costs for any part of the judicial system go, a 54% reduction in anything would go along way. The legalisat...
There have been 20 million arrests since 1965 for the possession of marijuana, also known as cannabis. The amount of crime and arrests for possessions of the illicit drug has increased due to the prohibition. Cannabis was a major cash crop for the industrial production prior to its illegalization. It has been estimated that the United States spends approximately $7.7 billion each year to prohibit the use of marijuana alone. Currently the number of people incarcerated is six to ten times higher than European countries (NORML). Today the United States wastes billions of dollars to fight against the war on drugs, for the imprisonment of hundreds of thousands of people, and etc. It’s also brought a raise of violence and crime relating to the dealing and production of the drug. Marijuana should be legalized because its ban has been futile in preventing illicit production, regulating it would allow new development in medical treatments, and would give a boost to the economy. The illegalization of the drug has a much more negative impact then it does well, in fact it’s pushed drug cartels to produce more of the drug because of the high demand and the millions of dollars they’ll make from profits.
In 2012, Colorado took a bold move and declared that Cannabis, also know as Marijuana or weed, is legal to buy for people 21 and over. Washington followed Colorado's footsteps and legalized weed, too. These actions are sparking questions if Colorado and Washington made the right choice. Should all states legalize weed or not? Initially, the United States is split into two sides. Those sides are people that want Marijuana legalized and those that don't. Legalizing marijuana has its pros if it is used to benefit the medical field, but there are cons in overusing and abusing it.
Ever since marijuana’s introduction to the United States of America in 1611, controversy of the use and legalization of the claimed-to-be Schedule I drug spread around the nation. While few selective states currently allow marijuana’s production and distribution, the remaining states still skepticize the harmlessness and usefulness of this particular drug; therefore, it remains illegal in the majority of the nation. The government officials and citizens of the opposing states believe the drug creates a threat to citizens due to its “overly-harmful” effects mentally and physically and offers no alternate purposes but creating troublesome addicts hazardous to society; however, they are rather misinformed about marijuana’s abilities. While marijuana has a small amount of negligible effects to its users, the herbal drug more importantly has remarkable health benefits, and legalizing one of the oldest and most commonly known drugs would redirect America’s future with the advantages outweighing the disadvantages.
The legalization of marijuana has been a highly debated topic for many of years. Since the first president to the most recent, our nation’s leaders have consumed the plant known as weed. With such influential figures openly using this drug why is it so frowned upon? Marijuana is considered a gateway drug, a menace to society, and mentally harmful to its consumers. For some people weed brings a sense of anxiety, dizziness, or unsettling feeling. Like alcohol, tobacco or any other drug, those chemicals may not respond well with their body. For other people marijuana brings joy, a sense of relief, and takes the edge off of every day stress. For those who are associated with cannabis, purposes usually range from a relaxant, or cash crop, to more permissible uses such as medicine, and ingredient to make so many other materials. We now need to look at what would change if marijuana were legal. Benefits to the economy and agriculture, health issues, and crime rates are three areas worth looking at. Deliberating on the pros and cons of this plant we can get a better understanding for marijuana. From there it will be easier to make a clear consensus on what is best for the nation.
Suppose your government made the decision that Christmas or your favorite coffee was suddenly criminalized. How would you react? America faced the prohibition of many substances throughout time, however, no law has been so controversial as the criminalization of marijuana. As a result of the criminalization of the drug, it has been illegal for citizens to use cannabis recreationally and medically, as well as for practical purposes. Marijuana has many medical uses as well as practical uses, such as using hemp instead of rope or taking advantage of marijuana as a paper resource instead of our diminishing trees.With marijuana still illegal in the United States, our country is taking a huge loss by squandering money by putting citizens in jail, wasting a valuable cash crop, as well as sponsoring violence and corruption throughout the streets.
One of the immediate favorable reasons for legalizing marijuana is the tax the government could place on it. A tax on legal marijuana could bring in millions of dollars in pure revenue. Just as legalizing weed could bring in money, it could also save money. Some of the money that goes into searching out for illegal weed would not have to be used. People who originally got weed illegally could then get it in completely legal ways.
The legalization of marijuana in the United States is a long and historically debated subject. Pro-legalization advocates provide many reasons for the decriminalization of marijuana; some of the reasons include, zero recorded deaths from direct use, wasting tax-payer money prosecuting non-violent offenders, and prohibition promotes organized crime. Anti-legalization organizers condemn legalization due to marijuana being considered a gateway drug, moral and religious opposition, legalization could lead to harder drugs being legalized, and the fear that legalization would enable the drug to be more accessible to children. There are many positive and negative aspects of legalization, but personally I am in favor of legalization and taxation of the non-deadly drug. In this paper, I will outline the good and the bad of legalization and investigate if legalization would be beneficial to America and society as a whole.
The legalization of marijuana has the potential to bring our economy back to life if it were to be legalized. There are a number of ways in which legalization could improve the economy. We could use the revenue from taxes on marijuana to provide for a better quality of life for Americans in need. Legalizing marijuana would also save us money by cutting the cost of putting someone in jail for harmless marijuana related charges that waste tax money. Also it would put more money into circulation by keeping the profits off the black market and into the legal and taxed market. With an estimated twenty-five million active marijuana smokers in America that consume nearly thirty-one million pounds of marijuana each year, we are missing out on extreme revenue that this country cannot afford to go without for much longer (Krulick).
Marijuana has been illegal for less than 1% of the time that it’s been in use (Guither, 2014). Going back to 1619, the Virginia Assembly passed legislation requiring every farmer to grow hemp. Hemp was allowed to be exchanged as legal tender in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland (Block, 2014). It was actually a crime in some states to refuse to grow hemp in the 1700's. In the late 19th century, marijuana was a popular ingredient in many medicinal products and was sold openly in public pharmacies (PBS, 2014). However, in the early 1900’s things changed, a prejudice and fear began to develop around marijuana because it was being used and associated with Mexican immigrants. In the 1930’s, the massive unemployment rates increased public resentment and disgust of Mexican immigrants, which escalated public and governmental concern (PBS, 2014). In 1930 a new federal law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) was created. Harry J. Anslinger was appointed the first commissioner of the FBN in 1930 (...
...llegalized for a long time without any evidence of success. The drug has become purer, more available, and cheap in the recent past. Demand and supply for marijuana has increased despite the harsh policies and the war on drugs. Legalizing marijuana will reduce the boom in the black market and reduce crime, corruption, and violence associated with drug cartels. Millions of dollars used for incarceration will be redirected to rehabilitation, which will reduce dependence, especially among younger users. Legalization will allow users of marijuana to buy from legal and safe sources. The war on drugs has been ineffective in reducing drug use despite spending a lot of money on incarcerations. Mass incarceration in the drug war has had negative effects on the society because most imprisoned individuals are non-violent offenders who pose no legitimate threat to the community.
With marijuana being illegal, keeping crime-related activities under control costs the United States approximately twenty billion dollars per year (Sledge). According to Brian Bremner and Vincent Del Giudice, “A 2010 study by the libertarian Cato Institute, forecasted that states could save $17.4 billion annually from reduced drug enforcement costs and increased tax revenue, assuming marijuana production and sales were legal nationwide” (11). Several law enforcement hours are exhausted with pursing, questioning, and arresting citizens that are in possession of or consuming marijuana. There would be a decrease in the number of misdemeanor possession cases that are pending hearing. These cases would be dismissed, decreasing costs associated with each case.
First of all, marijuana can have many positive effects on crime. Legalizing marijuana can actually decrease crime rates in the U.S. This past year, it was counted that 6.9 million people are inside the American’s jails and prisons. 60,000 of these individuals were there for marijuana according to one study. With the legalization of marijuana, it would cut the amount of tax we pay for these jails and prisons, costing us a total of 1.2 billion. Last year a total of 7 to 10 billion dollars was used towards arresting and processing against marijuana. The big picture here is that 90% of those arrests were just for possession. It is crazy that as a country we spend most of our time trying to stop the biggest drug in America when it is just wasting our money. There are less arrests on violent crimes than marijuana charges combined. These “violent crimes” consist of assault, rape, robbery, and murder. How awful is it that we waste our time on this drug when there are so many other bigger problems we could be solving or people to be saved. Cocaine and heroin arrests have actually decreased by 1/3 from 1991 to 2000. While marijuana has more than 700,000 people are ar...