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Persuasive Essay On Legalizing Marijuana

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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

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Aside from a multitude of medical benefits, it is important to recognize how the United States economy could save an estimated 7.7 billion dollars annually, if they let citizens to have an alternative legal form of medicine such as marijuana. Many of our country’s money saving would stem from the amount of money which is spent in order to arrest, prosecute, and incarcerate those who utilize medical marijuana. Caputo and Ostrom have as well stated, “It estimated that the figure represents 10-15 percent of the total trafficking illicit marijuana sales which, assuming a 15 percent

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But the financial benefits of legalization go beyond taxing the sale of marijuana and keeping drug money out of the hands of criminals. All across the nation, wherever the drug is illegal, state and local governments spend enormous sums of money on the enforcement of marijuana laws, the prosecution of offenders, and incarceration of the convicted. The Wall Street Journal estimates that the American taxpayer spends $40 billion per year on the administrative costs associated with the criminalization of marijuana (Becker). On the state level, we can again look to the example of Colorado. Conservative estimates by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy show that legalization will save the state $40 million per year by no longer administering marijuana laws (Drug Policy Alliance).

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dollars are spent a year on enforcing laws related to marijuana. In states where marijuana is decriminalized or legal there is much less money being spent on enforcing marijuana related laws (Decriminalization of Drugs in the United States). The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated that the annual national demand for recreational marijuana will be approximately 5.5-5.8 billion Canadian dollars for the first year marijuana becomes legal

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Colorado’s marijuana tax demonstrated this, showing that, “In 2015, marijuana taxes brought in about $121 million in revenue to the state” (Ingraham). Increased tax revenues leads to increased state budgets which lead to improvements in the areas of education, health, infrastructure, and public welfare. It seems that keeping marijuana illegal is actually more expensive than legalizing it. Tax payers continue to pay for this war on drugs, even though it will never end. Banks continue to profit from laundered money, the DEA wastes time and money on marijuana, big pharmaceutical companies profit from addicts, and drug dealers thrive.

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In 2015 alone 574,641 arrests were made for possession of small amounts of marijuana intended for personal use. Marijuana is a drug that has been asserted by scientists as less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco (two products that are both legal and easily accessed in the United States). If this drug is less dangerous than two of the most common legal drugs in the country, then why should the United States be spending millions of dollars maintaining non-violent criminals in our prisons? Recreational marijuana would also provide the US government with a major new source of income. In Colorado, where marijuana has been legal for recreational purposes for 4 years now (since 2014), the state government had made $506,143,635 as of May 31, 2017.

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The government will make money off of both cigarettes and marijuana and the C.D.C will have more than enough money to help tobacco addicts and rehabilitation programs. Making marijuana legal will not only have a financial benefit but a lawful one as

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If you think about it that can mean many dispensaries and much more tax revenue. The money that can be made by taxing marijuana through dispensaries can go to our education system and even on our transpiration system. Millions of dollars that can be made to help our economy, our transportation system, paying our officials, help with resources for our law enforcement, and infrastructure. Even with legalizing marijuana and having tax money we still have a huge problem at our borders. The borders of Mexico and Canada are filling in our country.

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Marijuana, or Cannabis, is a misconceived drug. Many people consider that the usage of marijuana is hazardous, but it can be the exact opposite. So why is the legalization of marijuana in the United States such an issue for some people today? Considered to be a gateway drug and the reason for the collapse of our youth nowadays, cannabis has realized as the vile way. Lester Grinspoon, a professor at Harvard University, states, “Few drugs in the United States have produced as much affective heat as marijuana, particularly during the last decade.

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In comparison, many of American natives have spent billions of dollars on the purchase of marijuana, which is almost the same amount that the purchase of alcohol puts into our economy. The profit from the marijuana goes back into the drug dealing cycle and the country does not get any benefit from the profit made because the government is not the distributors. Our federal government continues to complain about how expensive the “war on drugs” is and that our economy crisis does not need the continuation of unsuccessful programs that add to the debt. In reality the states in America spend billions to enforce marijuana laws. “In national surveys, 6.5 percent of high school seniors admit to daily use (Khamsi, 2013).”

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According to Drugpolicy.org the U.S spends annually more than $51,000,000,000 on the war on drugs. The number of people arrested in the U.S. on nonviolent drug charges 1.5 million people . The number of people arrested for marijuana law violation 693,482 and 88 percent of those arrested were arrested for possession only . The tax revenue that drug legalization would yield annually, if currently -legal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco $46.7 billion. As a citizen of the United States we always hear about the deficiency that Americans deal with and the ‘’ recession’’ that we were in.

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Cons of Legalizing Recreational Marijuana Marijuana legalization, for whatever reason, has been a topic of heated debate for years now. Different people express different opinions about why or why not it should be legalized for recreational use. The American FDA categorizes marijuana as a Schedule I drug meaning that its benefits are not guaranteed as many people claim. Although the drug has been said to contain medical benefits, the reality is that further research on how and when to use it is needed. Different states have legalized the use of Marijuana for medical reasons.

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Marijuana has been around for decades and was recreationally legal before the 1930s, but the Marijuana tax act criminalized the people that had or transferred marijuana. Which should have never happened in the first place. Marijuana is not as harmful as people make it out to seem. Tons of other legal drugs have much harsher side effects than marijuana has. Marijuana is a peaceful drug and enjoyable, should be legalized for people to use as they use Tylenol for headaches and Dimetapp for the flu or a cold, which on those drugs you can overdose on and marijuana you can not.

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Even though the government could earn a lot of money from taxation, it is hard to afford the cost of drug usage and drug abuse. Since the government needs to take responsibility on its consequences such as health care, crime careers, and victims of drug related crime, it is predictable that the cost of legalization will never be worth the social cost (Harwood, Fountain & Livermore, 1998). Besides drug taxation, some people believed that legal marijuana could better help the government to access and control the black market. In contrast, this could encourage drug producers to expand their market to the bigger target group and approach to teenagers. To sum up, it is true that taxing marijuana could raise

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If marijuana is regulated and taxed properly, it can generate millions of dollars that can help pay the debt of the US and/or help cities rebuild a better infrastructure. Marijuana has become the third most popular drug in the US behind alcohol and tobacco. It is a renewable resource and is not just used for smoking; it can be used to make paper, oils, and cloth. Every year millions of tax dollars are being spent to enforce marijuana laws. If these laws were repealed and marijuana was legalized, we would not only make money from the marijuana, but we would also be using a lot less money to enforce marijuana laws.

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This subject has been debated numerous times over the past few years. People’s points of view and researches about the topic have varied greatly. Some people believe that marijuana should be legalized, while the rest feel should stay prohibited. Proponents of marijuana argue that there are numerous medical benefits and that the drug is not more harmful than tobacco or alcohol. On the other hand, opponents argue that marijuana is too dangerous; its legalization would increase the chances of the drug falling into the hands of teens and that marijuana use often progresses to the use of more dangerous drugs like heroin and cocaine.

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