Essay on Speech: Drug Addiction and Marijuana Law Violations

Submitted By evacoustic
Words: 395
Pages: 2

Introduction:
Do you know which drug right now can relieve you from pain, stress and create relaxation while it’s not relatively addicting?
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2.2 million people were prisoned in in 2011, out of those, 750,000 people are arrested related to marijuana. 1 out of 3 arrests are marijuana related.
Statistics has shown that marijuana is one of the least toxic substances known
Really need to put that many people in jail simple because they smoke pot?
Waste of our tax money and deprive us from freedom because they are throwing people in jail for something that is less harmful than cigarettes and alcohol
Marijuana is not harmful enough to be banned for recreational use

Body:
Comparisons:
Slide 1
Overall picture, marijuana ranks the lowest in terms of seriousness among all these substances
Addiction potential and Dependence are the lowest
Compare intoxication to alcohol
Slide 2
Study done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
Tobacco death is more than 400,000
Alcohol death is 116,000
Marijuana death is 0
If tobacco and alcohol is legal, I don’t see why marijuana can’t be
Costs and Taxes:
According to businessweek, if selling at exactly same street price, could raise $40 billion to $100 billion in new revenue
Approximately 750,000 people were arrested for marijuana law violations in 2012 according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
If we combine this with New York City Comptroller’s estimates that the cost per arrest for marijuana is about $1,700, the total cost that we can save is about 1.2 billion dollars annually.
If Marijuana tax is imposed, generate revenue and save cost
The myths