Marijuana Trafficking Research Paper

2128 Words9 Pages
Marijuana Trafficking: Legalize it and Reduce its Effects With the current political climate there is a lot of talk about marijuana and whether it should be legalized or not. Many states decided this election season whether to legalize marijuana for medical and or recreational purposes and all of them passed. This research is important due to those factors. Citizens should understand the benefits of legalizing this valuable drug. This paper will focus on the benefits of legalizing marijuana. The benefits of legalizing marijuana far outweigh the benefits of continuing to criminalize the drug and will be made apparent through the research conducted here. Much of the legal system is tied up with the handling of marijuana offenders resulting…show more content…
If we assume that it costs a national average of $22,650 to incarcerate someone in state prison for a year we can estimate that incarcerating marijuana offenders in prison costs over $600 million per year (Beckett & Herbert, 2006, p. 27). This is a number that only continues to climb due to stricter laws and marijuana being more readily available to kids and adults alike. The amount of money used to employ law enforcement, courts, and prison staff comes directly from state and federal budgets in turn that comes directly from the tax payers pocket. Legalization of marijuana would not only eliminate those fees but proper state and federal taxing of the drug would earn more than double the cost of incarcerating marijuana offenders each year to be returned directly to state and federal…show more content…
It no longer makes sense in this time to prohibit the use of this valuable commodity. The uses presented in this research are only a small cross section of the beneficial areas of legalization. Making marijuana legal will continue to reduce trafficking, taxpayer monies would be saved by not having to prosecute marijuana offenders, an economic boost would be achieved by taking advantage of hemp as a cash crop, and an entirely new treatment plan for many diseases could be opened up with legalization. Legalizing marijuana will help the American people as well as reduce trafficking to the United
Open Document