Legalizing Marijuana
It costs significant money for governments to catch buyers and dealers of drugs in the black market, arrest them, file cases against them, and then keep them in jail. Hence, the war on drugs is a long, risky, expensive undertaking. (Boylstein, 2003) This spending is considerably high when talking about the drug marijuana, as it is one amongst largely consumed drugs as it does not cause much harm to health like tobacco or nicotine. Hence, the government was at a loss due to spending a lot of revenues on war on drugs and by not collecting taxes for the illegal drugs. According to the research, a lot of tax revenue can be collected by the governments by legalizing marijuana.
In old times, Americans considered marijuana, as an impecunious type of tobacco. Actually, its name marijuana was suggested by Mexicans, they considered marijuana as the lowest variety of cigarette. When these Mexican laborers mingled with other underprivileged farm laborers, some of them started to use marijuana as a recreational drink. In the beginning, it was only practiced by the poorest populations of the community and then it started to spread gradually. And currently, it has been calculated that its sellers earn as much as $6.90 for a unit of Marijuana as normal price of half a gram marijuana is $8.60 on the street, whereas its production cost is just $1.70. However, it has been estimated that this difference of prices would soon be diminished for the reason that, Entrepreneurs knowing the huge profits to be made through selling marijuana may establish their own cultivating operations, that will lead to a rise in its circulation on the streets, that will eventually cause its street price to drop to a price more or less similar to its cost of production. (Stingl, 2012) Obviously, it is not possible where the drug is still illegal and the fear of punishment discourage a lot of entrepreneurs and time to time drug bust keeps its supply reasonably low. It can be said that greater part of this $6.90 per unit of marijuana profit is utilized by the underground economy that is creating large number of criminals, many of them are also associated with organized crime...
Marijuana users are accustomed to consuming the substance even with the fact that they risk greatly from the act. "Few people claim that they would change the amount they used if marijuana were legalized (Johnston, Bachman, & O'Malley, 1981). A poll of 1,400 adults found that over 80% claimed that they would not try the drug even if it were legal (Dennis, 1990)" (Earleywine 232). Numerous people who have
Legalizing marijuana would actually allow authorities to focus on some of society's most severe problems, as they would no longer have to invest significant resources into punishing petty marijuana users. Considering the difficulties related to criminalizing marijuana, it only seems natural for the government to want to do everything in its power to have it legalized, as penalizing marijuana offenders costs society enormous resources, particularly given that the number of
There is much more to the issue and how it is addressed than that (Seamon, 2007). These states are: Alaska California Colorado Hawaii Maine Maryland Michigan Montana Nevada New Mexico Oregon Rhode Island Vermont Washington (Seamon, 2007) Criticisms of Decriminalization Gateway Drug The war on drugs has been in the news for some time now, and marijuana has been included in that war. It continues to be listed as important in the speeches of many politicians, and it continues to be at the forefront of a
Fact 9: Europe's more liberal drug policies are not the right model for America. Fact 10: Most non-violent drug users get treatment, not jail time. (Legalization, 2010). Conclusion There are no benefits for society in the legalization of marijuana. The money from the taxing of the marijuana will end up being use to regulate and enforce the dispensaries. The money to treat the addiction will be another source of lost revenues from the taxation. Increased usage
Ethics of Legalizing Marijuana In recent years, there has been a significant amount of debate as to whether or not the possession and usage of marijuana should be legalized. Several issues revolve around this topic, not the least of which are the perceived and actual effects of this particular narcotic in a psychological, physical, economic, and even social sense. Perhaps one of the best methods for determining a prudent choice of
Marijuana Legalization I have no doubt in my mind that a majority of Americans hold a stand similar to mine; that the criminalization of marijuana is indeed costing us more than its legalization would. Those sitting on the fence, or holding a contrary opinion have probably not thought of it this way; marijuana is the country's largest cash crop, and legalizing it will do nothing but yield a streak of
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