Legalizing Marijuana Drugs have become major influential forces in our society today, whether it’s enhancing one’s performance in a specific sport, alleviating pain that is caused by a specific disorder, or just for pleasure. They are becoming relied on today for a variety of reasons and keeping them prohibited is not benefitting anyone. In fact, it’s encouraging users. This issue has gotten out of control to a point where there are many options being considered now on how to control it or solve the problem. According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States. Marijuana, commonly referred to as weed, grass, Mary Jane and various other names, is a blend
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Scientists at this time did not fully understand the effects of this drug (History of Marijuana). Unfortunately, nobody thought of this as a terrible thing. As a result, marijuana smoking began its upward trend in the 1990’s, especially among teenagers.
Even though the rates of marijuana use have stabilized over the past few years, one of the most arguable topics of today is whether or not it should be legalized. Many people do not fully understand the properties and effects that marijuana has so they just consider it as if it were any other drug. However, marijuana is not like drugs such as heroin or cocaine. Marijuana should be legalized because it could provide relief to patients with debilitating diseases, boost the economy and help the government, and it is not a lethal …show more content…
Prison Population). If the prison admissions continue to increase, many states are going to be forced to look for other options on where to put the prisoners. Prisons only have a limited amount of space and can only do so much. This is becoming an issue and is growing rapidly because the more time this government spends on convicting people of possession of marijuana, the less time it has to focus on other problems. In addition to this, locking up marijuana users who have done no harm is a waste of time of the police, judges, attorneys and citizens themselves. When people get locked up in prison, taxpayers are the ones who end up paying for what they did or in this case didn’t do and that is simply unfair. There are bigger complications in our society such as sexual child abuse that the government should be focused on instead of imprisoning peaceful folks who haven’t abused the use of marijuana. A professor of economics at Harvard University, Jeffrey A. Miron, has done extensive research and has concluded in his report, The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition, that “marijuana legalization would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods. If, however, marijuana were taxed similarly to alcohol or tobacco, it might generate as much as $6.2
Scientists at this time did not fully understand the effects of this drug (History of Marijuana). Unfortunately, nobody thought of this as a terrible thing. As a result, marijuana smoking began its upward trend in the 1990’s, especially among teenagers.
Even though the rates of marijuana use have stabilized over the past few years, one of the most arguable topics of today is whether or not it should be legalized. Many people do not fully understand the properties and effects that marijuana has so they just consider it as if it were any other drug. However, marijuana is not like drugs such as heroin or cocaine. Marijuana should be legalized because it could provide relief to patients with debilitating diseases, boost the economy and help the government, and it is not a lethal …show more content…
Prison Population). If the prison admissions continue to increase, many states are going to be forced to look for other options on where to put the prisoners. Prisons only have a limited amount of space and can only do so much. This is becoming an issue and is growing rapidly because the more time this government spends on convicting people of possession of marijuana, the less time it has to focus on other problems. In addition to this, locking up marijuana users who have done no harm is a waste of time of the police, judges, attorneys and citizens themselves. When people get locked up in prison, taxpayers are the ones who end up paying for what they did or in this case didn’t do and that is simply unfair. There are bigger complications in our society such as sexual child abuse that the government should be focused on instead of imprisoning peaceful folks who haven’t abused the use of marijuana. A professor of economics at Harvard University, Jeffrey A. Miron, has done extensive research and has concluded in his report, The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition, that “marijuana legalization would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods. If, however, marijuana were taxed similarly to alcohol or tobacco, it might generate as much as $6.2