Last year nearly 701,000 people were arrested for marijuana related offenses. That equates to roughly one arrest every 45 seconds (Marijuana Legalization 2015…). Too many Americans are behind bars for trivial offences, in this case, possession of marijuana. Marijuana should be decriminalized in Minnesota because it would free up police resources to deal with more serious crimes, fix the problem that more harm is caused by the criminal prohibition of marijuana than by the use of marijuana itself, and finally, because it has been shown decriminalization does not lead to greater marijuana use.
The state of Minnesota should decriminalize marijuana because it would let police resources focus on dealing with more serious crimes. Police arrest more …show more content…
It has been proven by government studies that marijuana decriminalization has had virtually no effect on either marijuana use or beliefs and related attitudes about marijuana among American young people in those states that have enacted such a policy (Johnston, Lloyd...). This should be a relief to anyone who worries about more citizens becoming drug addicts. For the most part it has been concluded that people who are already into drugs will stay into drugs, and those who are not will continue to stay drug-free. It should also be noted that it has been found that rates of hard drug use (illicit drugs other than marijuana) among emergency room patients are substantially higher in states that have not decriminalized marijuana use. Experts speculate that this is because the lack of decriminalization may encourage the greater use of drugs that are even more dangerous than marijuana (Posner, Becker). All of these facts and studies point towards one idea, the decriminalization of marijuana can only help the …show more content…
Most people who are against decriminalization are under the impression that decriminalizing marijuana will to encourage people, especially the youth, to experiment with marijuana use. Thus creating more addicts. While there is minimal truth to this, what is wrong with this is that while citizens are more likely to experiment once there have been no studies that show correlation between discrimination and a rise in marijuana addicts. And what is more important is that decriminalization will help to reduce the rate of addiction to marijuana. The reason for this is that decriminalization will encourage the development of more clinics that treat this addiction, it will help spread the growth of Marijuana Anonymous, a group of organizations that help addicts break their addictions, and will produce other efforts to combat severe addictions to marijuana. As a result, while marijuana use may go up, the number of addicts is likely to go down. This should allay the fears of many opponents of decriminalization that it would lead to a large expansion in the number of addicts (Posner,
The state of Minnesota should decriminalize marijuana because it would let police resources focus on dealing with more serious crimes. Police arrest more …show more content…
It has been proven by government studies that marijuana decriminalization has had virtually no effect on either marijuana use or beliefs and related attitudes about marijuana among American young people in those states that have enacted such a policy (Johnston, Lloyd...). This should be a relief to anyone who worries about more citizens becoming drug addicts. For the most part it has been concluded that people who are already into drugs will stay into drugs, and those who are not will continue to stay drug-free. It should also be noted that it has been found that rates of hard drug use (illicit drugs other than marijuana) among emergency room patients are substantially higher in states that have not decriminalized marijuana use. Experts speculate that this is because the lack of decriminalization may encourage the greater use of drugs that are even more dangerous than marijuana (Posner, Becker). All of these facts and studies point towards one idea, the decriminalization of marijuana can only help the …show more content…
Most people who are against decriminalization are under the impression that decriminalizing marijuana will to encourage people, especially the youth, to experiment with marijuana use. Thus creating more addicts. While there is minimal truth to this, what is wrong with this is that while citizens are more likely to experiment once there have been no studies that show correlation between discrimination and a rise in marijuana addicts. And what is more important is that decriminalization will help to reduce the rate of addiction to marijuana. The reason for this is that decriminalization will encourage the development of more clinics that treat this addiction, it will help spread the growth of Marijuana Anonymous, a group of organizations that help addicts break their addictions, and will produce other efforts to combat severe addictions to marijuana. As a result, while marijuana use may go up, the number of addicts is likely to go down. This should allay the fears of many opponents of decriminalization that it would lead to a large expansion in the number of addicts (Posner,