Why Marijuana Should Be Legalized

The first reason that marijuana should be legalized is because there is no solid reason for it to be illegal. People are asking “Why should marijuana be legalized?" while we should be asking "Why should marijuana be illegal?" From a philosophical point of view, individuals deserve the right to make choices for themselves. The government only has a right to limit those choices if the individual's actions endanger someone else. This does not apply to marijuana. A person who chooses to use marijuana does so according to his or her own free will. The government also may have a right to limit individual actions if the actions pose a significant threat to the individual. But this argument does not logically apply to marijuana because marijuana is far less dangerous than some drugs which are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco. The second reason that marijuana should be legal is that it would save federal and state government a lot of money. We spend billions of tax paying dollars every year on the “War on Drugs.” Authorities chase people down who enjoy using marijuana even though the majority of these people do it for recreational purposes and are harmless. These people get locked up in prison and the tax payers have to pay for it. This is a serious waste of money for Americans. We have to pay for food, housing, health care, attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses to lock these people up. We could save billions of dollars if we stopped wasting time arresting people that like to use marijuana. In addition, if marijuana were legal then the government would be able to collect taxes on it. We would have a lot more money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes. It is estimated that if the federal government taxed marijuana we would see an increase of 1.4 billion dollars in revenue. The third reason why marijuana should be legal is because prohibiting it does not help the country in any way and can cause us many problems. There is no good evidence that prohibition decreases drug use. In fact prohibiting drugs shows that it increases the use of drugs. It is similar to the forbidden fruit concept; if you tell someone they can’t have something, they want it all that much more. Marijuana dealers do not care how old you are so they will sell to just about anyone. If it were regulated by the government, like tobacco and alcohol, we wouldn’t have to worry about this. People could go to a store to buy marijuana instead of doing so on the street. It is actually easier for kids to get marijuana than it is alcohol because it is legal in the country and regulated to keep it away from minors. We tried prohibition with alcohol and it failed miserably. We should be able to learn our lessons and not make the same mistakes.
Marijuana is not as addictive as the media would lead you to believe. The most addictive drug, even above heroin, is nicotine. After nicotine and heroine comes cocaine, and then alcohol. Below that is caffeine, and at the very bottom of the chart is marijuana; less addictive than drinking a can of Dr.