Also, an article by Kyla Carvet, “Would legalizing Marijuana Cut Law Enforcement Cost?” also states that San Diego county jail holds two hundred individuals out of forty-three thousand behind bars due to marijuana; The government can use the money being used for marijuana crimes for something more reasonable and beneficial to the states, such as a study made by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimated that more than eight billion dollars annual will be saved in law enforcement cost if marijuana were legalized. Moreover, an example of crime reduction would be when Colorado legalized crime and their marijuana charges dropped by ninety percent and marijuana distribution dropped by ninety-nine percent since 2010 ( Phillip Smith, 2015). The states should focus on the real crimes and save prison and jail space for the real …show more content…
According to the Drug Policy Alliance article, “Marijuana Legalization in Colorado: One-Year Status Report,” state that the city of Denver saw a decrease violent crime rates in the first eleven months, it went down by 2.2 percent. The crime rate in burglaries also decreased by 9.5 percent and overall property crime decreased by 5.9 percent (Drug Policy Alliance, 2015). This means that if the crime went down due to the legalization of marijuana the number of marijuana possession charges in Colorado courts has decreased by more than twenty-five thousand since 2010 from thirty thousand in 2010 to just one thousand in 2014 (Phillip Smith, 2015). To continue, crime is not directly related to marijuana. Studies show that alcohol is far more dangerous and far more responsible for deaths than marijuana is. According to the marijuana policy project’s article, “Marijuana is safer than alcohol,” states that alcohol is more likely to contribute to acts of violence than