Legalizing Marijuana
08/04/2012
SOC120: Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility (ADO1229A)
Instructor: Erin Schouten

Marijuana is a never ending conflict in the United States today. Some people agree that marijuana can be used for medicinal purpooses while others see it as a drug with harmful affects. Not only is this a controversial debate, it is an expensive conflict we are having. One benefit of legalizing marijuana would be that we as a nation could tax the income from the marijuana. This could possibly help us to get out of the national debt that we are in. Also with legalizing marijuana another benefit would be that the amount of persons arrested and crime level would drop significantly. Not to mention that if marijuana was legal the amount of perscription drug use that people are abusing would also drop significantly. Now it may not seem ethnical because for as long as people can remember marijuana has been known as a drug. Although technically it is a drug it does not half the amount of side effects that perscription drugs have. In todays economy we all know that we are well in debt as a country. If legalizing marijuana could possible be a start to help the debt then why not. According to CNBC Marijuana gross's an annual $120 billion dollars a year black market. Now if we as a country decide to legalize marijuana there will be tax. With this tax we could "Revenue from taxation of marijuana sales would range from $2.4 billion per year if marijuana were taxed like ordinary consumer goods to $6.2 billion if it were taxed like alcohol or tobacco."http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/) This would definitely be a start to helping our national debt. Any kind of help would be postitve, as long as we are not going more and more into debt. Also with this it would offer alot more jobs. There would be more supply and demand. The people want it and this we know for a fact. CNBC states "roughly 10 percent of the population above the age of 12 has used marijuana in the past year, while 6 percent has used it in any given month. Of all monthly users, 15 percent use marijuana on a daily basis." So that means out of every 100 people in the US 15 people use marijuana on a daily basis. So that obviously means that the amount of money that these people are spending everyday could very well be taxed money if marijuana was legalized. With legalizing marijuana it would open the door to many new oppurtunities for everyone. The demand for marijuana is indefinite.

Statistics say an arrest made every 19 seconds is marijuana related. Although there are many more crimes commited everyday marijuana tends to be a leading factor in many crimes today."Overall, 1,638,846 were arrested on drug charges in 2010, up very slightly from the 1,633,582 arrested in 2009. But while the number of drug arrests appears to be stabilizing, they are stabilizing at historically high levels. Overall drug arrests are up 8.3% from a decade ago.But for the second year in a row, pot busts accounted for more arrests than all other drugs combined, constituting 52% of all drug arrests in 2010. Nearly eight million people have been arrested on pot charges since 2000.The vast majority (88%) off marijuana arrests were for simple possession, with more than three-quarters of a million (750,591) busted in small-time arrests. Another 103,247 people were charged with sale or manufacture, a category that includes everything from massive marijuana smuggling operations to persons growing a single plant in their bedroom closets." If the government were to legalize marijuana the amount of arrest made would decrease significiantly. Also our jail systems would not be as crowded. According to a report released in December of 2008 from the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, the number of people incarcerated for drug offenses in state and federal prisons are over 600,000. In 2007 the Department of Justice reported