Legalization Of Marijuana In The United States

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Legalization of Marijuana The crusaders for the legalization of marijuana in the United States have gained ground over time. Fifteen states have successfully enacted pieces of legislation that decriminalize marijuana to a given extent. These states include Alaska, Nevada, Maine New Jersey, Washington and Arizona. There are ten other states that have pending pieces of legislation to open up the use of marijuana. The grounds for decriminalizing marijuana in all these states are that marijuana has medical uses. Despite getting what could be termed as victory when marijuana for medical use is legalized, the proponents of the legalization of marijuana are still fighting for complete legalization of marijuana. Armed with reasons why marijuana…show more content…
The proponents of this idea seem to have overlooked the fact that marijuana can be grown anywhere and the third world countries that are supposed to benefit from this trade will suffer. This is because they will lose their primary market. Saldever (2006) argues that small businesses that make money from selling marijuana will make more profits since majority of the cigarette smokers and alcohol users are quitting them. He adds that the tobacco and alcohol companies will have to put in more money in the advertisements to be able to capture their customers. This economic reason for supporting legalization of marijuana does not count when one looks at the big picture, this is because there is simply a trade off which means that there will be no overall increase in profits in the economy as a…show more content…
There are however moral considerations to be taken into account. Many religions and codes of moral conduct forbid the use of intoxicants. Marijuana is deemed to fall into this category of intoxicants. For a nation like America that was established on a strong religious foundation, the legalization of marijuana with the aim of making profits would mean that it is compromising on its core values and beliefs. In addition, the economic benefits of legalizing marijuana is likely to be overshadowed by its impact on society. LEGAL REASONS There will be a more room created in the overcrowded prisons when the marijuana offenders are no longer jailed. This will lead to an allocation of more resources to the police to handle more violent crimes like murderers, violent criminals, rapists, child molesters and other crimes (Klein, 2009). The experiences of countries that have legalized marijuana, notably the Netherlands, supports the contention that legalizing marijuana leads to a reduction in crime. However, control measures have to be put in place to regulate the use of marijuana. Saldever (2006) argues that with the legalization of marijuana, the fight against violent crimes, drug warfare, robbery and cocaine could become extinct. This is unfortunately not true because, the use of marijuana make one prone to use other drugs. MEDICAL REASONS

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