One of the top controversies in America today is whether or not marijuana should be legalized whether for medical or recreational use. Over ninety-four million Americans admitted to at least trying marijuana once in their life. For most, they find it unbelievable that the government can tell an adult, who supposedly has free will to do whatever they want in this country, that they cannot smoke a plant that comes naturally from the earth. The “drug” is now being researched and scientist are finding many benefits that would help many patients that have different diseases and or symptoms. The effects of the drug on an individual level along with it being considered a gateway drug have slowed the progress of marijuana being legalized. Even though the drug does have some negative effects, surely the positives of the use of it out weigh the bad. Many anti-marijuana activists are so opposed to it that they fail to even do the research to understand the drug. Marijuana is a psychoactive drug extracted from a dried …show more content…
The war on marijuana costs us an incredible amount of money in many different ways. First, the money that the U.S is missing out on by not legalizing and taxing the drug is lucrative. According to Drugfreeworld.org, in the year 2000 Americans spent approximately 10.5 billion dollars on cannabis. If this drug were to be legalized and taxed like tobacco and alcohol, expert economists are claiming that the business could generate up to 6.2 billion dollars in taxes a year. Since 2014 when Colorado started experimenting with the legalization of marijuana, the business has generated some 700 million dollars. However, since there is a prohibition on the drug at the federal level, the earnings return to the pockets of the black-market entrepreneurs that open the dispensaries. Second, not only is the U.S missing out on the money that it could be making, the war on marijuana is costing