Research Paper On Never-Legalization

Submitted By jlv7005
Words: 847
Pages: 4

Ending the never-ending battle Laws are broken as often as just about anything that can be thought of. What would you say if there was a way to reduce government spending by ten billion dollars a year? Of course one would want to know how this could be accomplished. By changing the way that we view a crime that has been in place since the 1930’s we can finally end this never-ending battle. Marijuana prohibition has been a heavily scrutinized and highly debated topic for decades. Although it is illegal, marijuana is one of the highest selling agricultural products in the nation. The amount of money and resources that are wasted each year trying to eliminate marijuana and related crimes is absurd considering that it is impossible to stop. By converting our current system to a system of regulation, we can help individuals that need the drug for medical reasons while at the same time getting the country back on track. The first thoughts that come to mind when thinking about marijuana are that it is bad, illegal, harmful, addictive, and that it can kill if enough is used. Substances such as alcohol, cigarettes, coffee, and even food are some examples of guilty pleasure that people use every day which can be described with the same characteristics more so than marijuana. How many deaths do you think occur each year in the United States due to excessive use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana? In the United States approximately 88,000 people die each year from excessive alcohol use. Approximately 480,000 people die each year due to cigarettes; not including smokeless tobacco. The number of deaths for marijuana overdoses must be high right? Wrong, there is not a single record of a fatality due marijuana overdose. A person would theoretically have to smoke nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about 15 minutes to induce a lethal response. Prisons are crowded with arrests from marijuana possession, based on the facts we should be regulating and taxing it just like alcohol and tobacco are to give police officers time to focus on more serious offenses and stimulate the economy. The war against marijuana has been a massive failure that has the government spending billions of dollars annually. It is time to start transforming the wasted money from policing and border control into taxable revenue. Two states, Colorado and Washington have already started the process of making recreational marijuana use legal. Some of the provisions between the states say that an adult over the age of twenty one may possess up to and ounce of marijuana and adults may also grow up to six plants for private use. Smoking in public places is illegal and driving while under the influence of marijuana shares the same penalties as driving drunk. This way law enforcement is not completely eliminated. Marijuana stores in Colorado must be licensed by the state which can cost up to $18,000 just to be able to manufacture and distribute the drug. For every sale a store makes there is a twenty five percent tax, creating a lot of state revenue. There will always be concerns about people under the age of twenty one getting their hands on marijuana, even today it is easy for them to access it but by allowing a responsible age group to use it in their own