Should Marijuana Be Legalized in the US?
Introduction
What is marijuana? How is it defined and why is it controversial in the US? According to the foundation for a Drug-Free World (2014), marijuana refers to the term used to describe the dried flowers, seeds, and leaves of the Indian hemp plant. In many instances, marijuana is often interchanged with the term cannabis. The Foundation for a Drug-Free World (2014) mentions that the hallucinogen chemical found is cannabis is known as THC, and may vary substantially from each different batch of marijuana. At the street where it is mostly sold, marijuana is commonly referred to as pot, dope, ganja, grass, weed, etc. Around the world, marijuana is the most illegally consumed drug. In the US alone, …show more content…
With regard to the first premise, High Times (2014) explains that federal and state law enforcement authorities are tasked with far much bigger responsibilities than arresting close to a million individuals each year on marijuana related charges. According to High Times (2014), these arrests eventually result in increased litigation costs in disposing off the cases, and finally, further increase the burden on the tax payer of sustaining the US correctional system. In this regard, we can therefore deduce that not only does marijuana arrest cases divert essential law enforcement resources, but it also results in the clogging up of the judicial system, and the wastage of valuable jail space; space that could be used to store high-level criminals such as terrorists, murders, and rapists. Therefore, as Cloud (2009) asserts, by legalizing marijuana, the US economy will benefit from the freeing up of additional budgetary
Introduction
What is marijuana? How is it defined and why is it controversial in the US? According to the foundation for a Drug-Free World (2014), marijuana refers to the term used to describe the dried flowers, seeds, and leaves of the Indian hemp plant. In many instances, marijuana is often interchanged with the term cannabis. The Foundation for a Drug-Free World (2014) mentions that the hallucinogen chemical found is cannabis is known as THC, and may vary substantially from each different batch of marijuana. At the street where it is mostly sold, marijuana is commonly referred to as pot, dope, ganja, grass, weed, etc. Around the world, marijuana is the most illegally consumed drug. In the US alone, …show more content…
With regard to the first premise, High Times (2014) explains that federal and state law enforcement authorities are tasked with far much bigger responsibilities than arresting close to a million individuals each year on marijuana related charges. According to High Times (2014), these arrests eventually result in increased litigation costs in disposing off the cases, and finally, further increase the burden on the tax payer of sustaining the US correctional system. In this regard, we can therefore deduce that not only does marijuana arrest cases divert essential law enforcement resources, but it also results in the clogging up of the judicial system, and the wastage of valuable jail space; space that could be used to store high-level criminals such as terrorists, murders, and rapists. Therefore, as Cloud (2009) asserts, by legalizing marijuana, the US economy will benefit from the freeing up of additional budgetary