Although alcohol is legal, it does not mean that it is better for you. There are arguments going both ways where people suggest that marijuana should be legal because alcohol is more deadly, while there are alcoholics that would say smoking weed is bad for you. Both substances are bad for your health and should not be used heavily by anyone. Marijuana has an immediate effect on the user, which last for about two hours after smoking. A person drinking alcohol may start to feel the effects after just one drink, and recover depending on how much the person drank, body weight, and how much they may have had to eat before drinking.
Final Paper 5/13/2011 Marijuana in California. The debate regarding the legalization of soft drugs such as marijuana is capable of being characterized as one which pits the concept of freedom of the individual against the concept of a paternalistic State. Advocates of legalization argue that amongst other things, marijuana is not only less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, which are legal substances, but also as a matter of fact has been proven to possess certain medicinal property. The people who support the legalization are member of law enforcement and medical professionals, who really know how ineffective and unnecessary in stance prohibitionist. In contrast, those opposed to legalization argue that the legalization of marijuana will
With the value of the illicit marijuana market estimated to be $113 billion, maintaining marijuana prohibition costs the taxpayer a further $31.1 billion (Gettman, 1). Legalizing and taxing marijuana would not bring the United States into virgin territory. For the past 20 years, marijuana use has been legal for individuals over the age of 21 in the Netherlands. Contrary to popular belief, legalization in that country has not led to a surge in marijuana usage. For most age groups, marijuana usage statistics are similar between the Dutch and the Americans.
They say that marijuana is not as harmful as alcohol or tobacco products so why shouldn’t it be legal? One of the biggest things on people’s minds is the money that can be made from the growing and selling of marijuana and how much the government wastes each year trying to fight a losing battle on the war against marijuana.
After looking into all the issues of legalizing marijuana and looking at the pros and cons, the only conclusion we should come to is to legalize it. Aside from our feelings against it, it makes no sense not to legalize it. To make it legal, and stop all the hardcore drug enforcement would save the U.S at least a couple billion dollars. Legalizing it would also bring revenue of up to $6.2 billion annually by taxing the sales of it. Plain and simple, we need to legalize marijuana.
Marijuana is not a gateway drug, it's not physically addicting, and it doesn't kill brain cells... The propaganda surrounding marijuana is deceitful. It's time to wake up and realize this natural, God-given plant will only benefit society instead of being detrimental as many may think. It would cut down on prison space by legalizing marijuana. If you look at alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, look how many less gangs and crime there was after alcohol was legalized again.
(Clark, n.d.) In November 2012, voters in Washington and Colorado agreed to directly challenge the federal marijuana prohibition and legalize the growing, selling and consuming of marijuana for all people age 21 and older. State officials have spent the last few months working on regulatory schemes that would not run afoul of federal authorities, who have so far taken a hands-off approach to marijuana enforcement in both states. (Clark, n.d.) What message does this send to the users of marijauna and to those who continue to sell and distribute marijuana illegally? In part, that's because legalizing drugs takes away a significant deterrent against drug use. Moreover, for as long as we have monitored drug use, we have seen that whenever there is a decrease in the percentage of young people who perceive marijuana use as harmful, the percentage of users increases.
Why the Federal Government Should Legalize Marijuana Emily Ross COM/215 11-10-2014 Does anyone know the precise reason why the U.S. Government will not legalize the use of marijuana? Do you know of any reasons the American government should legalize marijuana? Although the legalization of marijuana is an extremely controversial subject for most it is a topic that will be debated for years. The debt the government consumes trying to keep marijuana illegal is outrageous. In 2009 an estimated 858,408 individuals were arrested for marijuana violation.
The topic of legalizing marijuana is a very controversial issue in American politics today. Marijuana has been vilified in America for over 70 years. Despite it’s many practical uses, medicinal and industrial, our Federal government insists on maintaining the status quo that the growth, possession and use of marijuana is criminal despite the evidence that the legalization of marijuana would have a positive influence on America. The illegality of marijuana has hurt society more than it has helped, legalization would benefit America both economically and medically. Twenty years ago, only 16% of the public said the use of marijuana should be legal and 81% said it should not be legal.
Many drug users are arrested for possession of Marijuana every day. It has been a problem that Marijuana is the most common drug that is used in the streets. Also numerous addicts are arrested for different drugs such as heroin or crack cocaine or many times, are under the influence of alcohol. Somehow, the issue on legalizing Marijuana is that anti Marijuana users think that if Marijuana is legalized, crime on the streets would be much higher. For instance, Pot heads (Marijuana users) get busted for minor crimes such as illegal possession of Marijuana.