Every year our state has to spend a large sum of money on supervising marijuana because it is illegal. But once Proposition 19 is passed, those marijuana offenders and drug traffickers will be innocent. “The measure could result in savings to the state and local governments by reducing the number of marijuana offenders incarcerated in state prisons and county jails, as well as the number placed under county probation or state parole supervision”(Brown 14). This could save California millions of dollars annually.
While some do not believe the theory that drugs are used for the risk, it is an interesting way to look at the reason people do drugs. People who are pro drugs promote that drugs, such as marijuana, are used for medical use as well as recreational use, because they enjoy the effect drugs have on them. Prohibitionists state that if drugs were legalized they would be only consumed for recreational use or to escape from reality instead of dealing with issues (Marijuana Abuse, 2012). Some prohibitionists do not even believe that drugs help in medical ways. This controversial topic is one of the reasons the drug reform is such a debated movement of today.
Legalizing marijuana will not only benefit the users but the us economy could be stabilized if this drug was legalized. First of too much money is being out into the war on drugs,contributing to the useless spending the country already does. For instance 16 billion dollars of your tax paying dollars goes towards keeping marijuana under control. But you may want to task yourself is it really working. We send so much money to keep it at bay,but yet most of the people who are locked is because of small crimes that include marijuana offenses.
Legalizing marijuana here will save and make an immense amount of money. Keeping marijuana illegal, however, costs a lot more money. Our tax money is being spent on the cost of prosecution and defense of accused offenders, cost of incarceration of convicted offenders, foster care and social services for children of incarcerated offenders, and cost of active law enforcement (SDAA). Housing a single marijuana offender in a prison costs taxpayers over $100,000 (Donziger). In total, taxpayers spend up $7.5 billion, or $23,500 per person, annually on feeding, clothing, and providing shelter for marijuana offenders (Donziger).
Many believe marijuana is a stress reliever and a way to forget all their problems, but if one would realize the actual effects and the difficulty to be able to “cut back” on smoking/eating it, the drug lobby would not be trying so hard to con voters into believing marijuana is completely safe. To face this problem the organized participation of society is required through actions that put the health of individuals and communities before other interests. Including being worried about the number of marijuana consumers among children and adolescents in the world, and particularly worried about the age decreasing for first timers. More importantly get closer to decision makers and ask them to develop well-balanced national policies for supply reduction and demand reduction by initiating prevention programs, and offering rehabilitation as means too face this social phenomenon society calls the drug
Dr. Herbert Kleber, Psychiartist, Ny State Psychiatric Institute, says that marijuana in an inhibitor of good feelings to the psychiatric mind. It creates a tingly and cloudy sensation. Kleber ends with most simple of remarks, “people smoke weed because it feels good.”(Taboo Television show, 05/03/2011) Also future side effects can be real sever sometimes, such as schizophrenia. Alcohol also alters the consumer, but in far different ways than marijuana. Alcohol when consumed is metabolized by the liver, when fully consumed and digested the users feels disorientated.
Controlled distribution of the drug in a safe, regulated environment would eliminate the black market and its associated criminality. It worked with alcohol: the mobsters are no longer in control of alcohol, and police don't get shot making alcohol raids. We should take a lesson from history and legalize marijuana to reduce violence even further (MJlegal, 2007). Marijuana's therapeutic uses are well-documented in modern scientific literature. The studies indicate that marijuana provides symptomatic relief for a number of medical conditions, including nausea and vomiting, stimulating appetite, promoting weight gain, and diminishing intraocular pressure from glaucoma.
A survey done in 1991 showed that over 20 million people used marijuana within that year. In the United States there are more than 300,000 drug offenders in prison at every moment costing our government $100,000 per cell, meaning it costs $30 billion to make a place for these people to serve their crime. In addition it costs $25,000 per year to keep an inmate in prison, adding $15 billion more to our already high costs (Towards a Policy on Drugs). Elliott Currie describes that the United States should adopt the Dutch policy of legalization of marijuana and other hashish drugs excluding cocaine and heroin. These two drugs are much more harmful to you and can be highly addictive.
Certain Hindu sects in India used marijuana for religious purposes and stress relief. However, doctors did believe that consumption of marijuana in excess caused impotence, blindness and “seeing devils”. In modern times hemp is used for a wide variety of purposes including cordage of varying tensile strength, clothing, nutritional products and various industrial purposes. Making marijuana illegal in North America has helped create many street gangs who profit from the sale of a plant that is less harmless than alcohol and less addictive than coffee. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the benefit of legalization of marijuana from financial and social aspects, and also from its benefits in providing relief to many patients across the world.
Marijuana is also too expensive to prevent on a justice system, when the funds can be used elsewhere. If marijuana is made legal, the country could add a sin tax on it, like other legal drugs on the market, to bring in more income to south Africa. Therefore , after all the reasons stated , marijuana could bring in money into south Africa, and save south Africa money. 2. People in south Africa, can use marijuana as a medical purpose ,if marijuana is made legal.