Legalization of marijuana and its impacts
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Legalization of marijuana and its impacts
Today, there are many calls for the legalization of drugs, particularly marijuana. The campaigns are all around, from the Hollywood movies to the popular Jamaican dance hall music. The popularity of this genre of films implies that the society is ready for the legalization of the drug. In addition to the popular culture, it is common knowledge that many people take the drug (Friedman, 2012). Maybe the view of this paper is skewed by the exposure of the writer to many users, and the depiction of many people smoking in movies and still leading productive lives. However, it cannot be disputed that marijuana is central to popular culture, …show more content…
They have the ability to make their users dependent on them and thus disrupting their social functions. While this is true, this paper is about a less addictive drug, one that has been shown to have medical properties. Therefore, it would be useful to sort these drugs into different categories in order to justify this stance. Marijuana is addictive, but it is closer to cigarette and coffee, which are both legal, than to the likes of cocaine and heroin (Fox & Armentano, 2010).
Drugs fuel gang violence. It is well known that the control of drug territories is part of the reason why gangs fight against each other. The revenues that are generated from the lucrative trade add to the allure of gangs. From an economic point of view, controlling something leads its decrease and unavailability. The result is that due to diminishing supply, the demand increases and thus the prices go up. For these reason, gangs make a lot of money, and this leads to violent competitions as well as investments in …show more content…
For this reason, it cannot benefit from taxing a product that causes harm to the citizens. This invalidates the advantage of generating money and any other related advantages. The duty of the state is to protect the citizens, and not to expose them to risks.
There is a need to rescue the consumers of the drug. This is why there are rehabilitation facilities around the country. Legalizing the drug potentially has the potential of increasing the number of users, thus increasing the need for help instead of helping the existing conditions.
In addition, there is a concern that the legalization of drugs will send a message to children that it is acceptable to use recreational drugs. This may create a problem of having a future generation that is entirely reliant on drugs (Amonini, 2005).
There is also the case of the harm done by drugs to other persons besides the user. Take the example of drunk drivers. Similarly, a smoker exposes all the people around them to the harmful substances (Friedman, 2012). This is the reason why smoking cigarettes was banned from public areas. This implies that the rationale where people should be allowed to use drugs because they are only harming themselves is invalid; they pose a threat to all the people around
Name
College
Legalization of marijuana and its impacts
Today, there are many calls for the legalization of drugs, particularly marijuana. The campaigns are all around, from the Hollywood movies to the popular Jamaican dance hall music. The popularity of this genre of films implies that the society is ready for the legalization of the drug. In addition to the popular culture, it is common knowledge that many people take the drug (Friedman, 2012). Maybe the view of this paper is skewed by the exposure of the writer to many users, and the depiction of many people smoking in movies and still leading productive lives. However, it cannot be disputed that marijuana is central to popular culture, …show more content…
They have the ability to make their users dependent on them and thus disrupting their social functions. While this is true, this paper is about a less addictive drug, one that has been shown to have medical properties. Therefore, it would be useful to sort these drugs into different categories in order to justify this stance. Marijuana is addictive, but it is closer to cigarette and coffee, which are both legal, than to the likes of cocaine and heroin (Fox & Armentano, 2010).
Drugs fuel gang violence. It is well known that the control of drug territories is part of the reason why gangs fight against each other. The revenues that are generated from the lucrative trade add to the allure of gangs. From an economic point of view, controlling something leads its decrease and unavailability. The result is that due to diminishing supply, the demand increases and thus the prices go up. For these reason, gangs make a lot of money, and this leads to violent competitions as well as investments in …show more content…
For this reason, it cannot benefit from taxing a product that causes harm to the citizens. This invalidates the advantage of generating money and any other related advantages. The duty of the state is to protect the citizens, and not to expose them to risks.
There is a need to rescue the consumers of the drug. This is why there are rehabilitation facilities around the country. Legalizing the drug potentially has the potential of increasing the number of users, thus increasing the need for help instead of helping the existing conditions.
In addition, there is a concern that the legalization of drugs will send a message to children that it is acceptable to use recreational drugs. This may create a problem of having a future generation that is entirely reliant on drugs (Amonini, 2005).
There is also the case of the harm done by drugs to other persons besides the user. Take the example of drunk drivers. Similarly, a smoker exposes all the people around them to the harmful substances (Friedman, 2012). This is the reason why smoking cigarettes was banned from public areas. This implies that the rationale where people should be allowed to use drugs because they are only harming themselves is invalid; they pose a threat to all the people around