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Persuasive Essay On Legalizing Marijuana

1489 Words6 Pages

Cannabis is the recreational drug of choice for over 70 million Americans, meaning that nearly a quarter of Americans smoke weed. This also means that in 19 states, all of these Americans are criminals. This criminalization and condemnation of marijuana smokers absolutely needs to stop at a federal level. Marijuana needs to be legalized in the United States and the next step to this process is federally legalizing the use of recreational marijuana use. Currently, in most states marijuana is under some kind of prohibition. The federal and state governments know and choose to ignore facts, history, and crime associated with prohibition and the drug itself; they use taxpayers money and countless amounts of it to fund the legal destruction of personal …show more content…

The government wastes billions of dollars in law enforcement resources with increasing amounts of marijuana arrests each year (Stroup). According to the FBI reports, an American is arrested every forty five seconds for marijuana charges and forty four percent of all drug arrests are for marijuana. This just creates an endless cycle of drug use, and makes the problems so much worse. Incarceration of prisoners with drug-related crimes do not work to address the issue because current drug rehabilitation provided in both state and federal prison tend to be counterproductive in treatment and most inmates relapse soon after release (Aspenridge recovery). This is because many people who are incarcerated for drug-related crimes come from impoverished neighborhoods, so of course, locking a person up for small drug crimes and then sending them back to a crime-filled place will never work. This goes hand-in-hand with the societal stigmatization of people who have criminal records, leading them to not be able to get jobs and get out of situations where relapse is inevitable Now, legalizing marijuana doesn’t change the fact that there are more drugs than just marijuana on streets where crime is prevalent. However, it does help nearly half of drug-related incarcerated people stay out of prison, and allow marijuana smokers to be working members of …show more content…

In the case of drug problems, it immensely impacts black and hispanic communities. The racist system that modern day Americans inherited and are contributing to is the main reason why simply decriminalizing marijuana is not the answer. Of the millions of people who partake in weed, black and hispanic people only make up 20%. Although these two racial groups make up less than a quarter of stoners in America, they take up 58% of all people who have been charged with marijuana crimes (Stroup). This is an obvious attack and targeting of these people of color by law enforcement. In Colorado, the decriminalization of marijuana actually increased the amount of black and hispanic minors being arrested for marijuana crimes, while the marijuana arrest rate in white minors decreased (Anguelov). This also takes into account the amount of black and hispanic people who live in impoverished, overpoliced places, making underprivileged black people four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than white people (Drug Policy Alliance). This legal discrimination of minority groups is not difficult to end, destigmatising drugs that affect these groups does not solve the

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According to the article, The Drug War, Mass Incarceration, and Race “ Black people comprise 13 percent of the U.S. population,10 and are consistently documented by the U.S. government to use drugs at similar rates to people of other races.11 But black people comprise 31 percent of those arrested for drug law violations,12 and nearly 40 percent of those incarcerated”. Despite the fact that colored people are minorities in the country still, make up 1/3 of the people arrested because of the drug policy. The policy effective created to target the minorities by making the cocaine the main focus of the drug. “America of the poor, where, amid hopelessness and lack of education, people will suffer the worst consequences of cocaine”(Kerr, 1) which in many poor communities lived the colored minorities, this made it easier for the police officer to target and arrest the

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The article also explores the exclusion of people of color in the legal cannabis industry and the racist attitudes driving cannabis criminalization. In conclusion, Fernandez's article highlights the need for systemic change in the United States' criminal justice system to address the racial inequalities and injustices that still exist within our

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In the past 40 years, drug offenses have been on the rise as a priority offense. According to Prison Policy, 1 in 5 incarcerated inmates are locked up for a drug offense. At the same time, black people make up 40% of the prison/jail population, which is more than the white population of 39%. Considering that black people only make up 13% of the nation, this disproportionate rate of black people being arrested is quite evident. Conversely, when it comes to drugs, black people are the highest demographic arrested for drug offenses, even though all races and ethnicities sell drugs at very similar rates.

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The seemingly endless national struggle, otherwise known as the War on Drugs, has been around for decades; with policies being enacted hoping to end this epidemic. But after numerous failed attempts, officials have hit a wall in the fact that they don’t know what else they can do to end it. If history has taught America anything at all, it is that it repeats itself, as shown by Prohibition; which made alcohol illegal during the Great Depression. This begs the question: Why are officials so set on prohibiting the use of drugs when history has proven its’ effects?

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In one article, it says that 77 percent of Hispanics were overrepresented for the sentencing of marijuana (Nelson, Steven. Latinos Got). The Latino community is not only profiled because of the drugs, but are being targeted by ICE agents to figure out if they are using, selling, or importing drugs. In an article for New York it says that the Latino community is being targeted based on race to see if there is anything going on with drugs (Criminal Justice Reform). In a case study that was done in 2016, the states have arrested more Latinos for drug crimes than any other race.

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Introduction Michelle Alexander’s article, “In Legalizing Marijuana, End the Racial Bias,” was published in May 2013 by the New York Times online. In this article, the author asserts that there is a correlation between the “war on marijuana” and racial profiling, creating an endemic of racial disparities. The author suggests that when the system punishes someone in possession of marijuana, more particularly a colored youth, they become a “second-class” citizen. Their rights are reduced exponentially and are “discriminated against legally” and labeled as criminals. This leaves them at a major disadvantage at an early age.

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Oliver also touches the subject of race relating to drug convictions and he states that whites and blacks use about the same quantity of drugs. Oliver states that Blacks are nearly ten times more likely to be convicted than Whites for drug offenses. Since the 1980’s, drug offenses have tripled and of those arrests marijuana accounted for about half of those offenses (Mcelrath, Taylor, & Tran, 2016). In some states, the use of marijuana accounts for nearly 60% of those convicted for drug offenses (Mcelrath, Taylor, & Tran, 2016). Those convicted of using a lower classification drug like marijuana should not be in jail or prisons with those convicted of an egregious crime like rape or murder.

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Higher arrest and incarceration rates for African Americans and Latinos are not reflective of increased prevalence of drug use or sales in these communities, but rather of a law enforcement focus on urban areas, on lower-income communities and on communities of color as well as inequitable treatment by the criminal justice system. We [Drug Policy Alliance] believe that the mass criminalization of people of color, particularly young African American men, is as profound a system of racial control as the Jim Crow laws were in this country until the mid-1960s”

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The United States has historically had its fair share of race-related issues throughout its short existence, with slavery being the first issue that jumps to everyone’s minds when the topic is broached, but another lesser known area that deserves light shed on it are the drug and alcohol laws that have been passed specifically targeting every race except white Americans. Historically, many of these laws have targeted specific groups of individuals that were closely associated with a specific type of drug, such as the Chinese Americans and opium, African Americans with crack cocaine, and Mexican Americans with marijuana. The laws targeting these groups of minorities in America tended to have disproportionate prison sentences attached to them

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This is evidence that African American communities are more inclined to have drug dealers and possible drug users. “However, drug selling activity does not accurately indicate that drug use and dependency are in certain neighborhoods and this fuels a strong misperception about patterns of drug abuse in American society” (King., Mauer, p.21, 2007). Therefore, the targeting towards African American community’s primarily due to this data may not be accurate. This also causes law enforcement to ignore other communities that might be heavily influenced by drug dealers. This is one practice that needs to change, not only throughout drug policies and sentencing laws but throughout the

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A social problem that greatly effects the African American community is racial profiling. This problem is caused a history of racism and prejudice in American society and its criminal justice system. Racial profiling is a way for police officers to attain their quota for tickets or arrests by heavily patrolling communities heavily populated by minorities and targeting them. This results in a high number of African Americans, as well as Hispanics, being ticketed or sent to jail for minor offenses or crimes. One such offense is the possession of marijuana, where statistics have shown that Blacks and Hispanics have disproportionately been arrested for this offense compared to White people in New York City.

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Since 2012, the electorate in 3 states and Washington DC have decided that marijuana should also be legalized for use as a recreational drug, to be sold, regulated, and taxed in a manner similar

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The argument fails to consider historical and social factors that have contributed to the high rates of drug use and drug-related crime in Black communities. Decades of systemic racism, poverty and the resulting impact on the Black communities, along with discriminatory policing practices, have created an environment in which drug use and drug-related crime are more prevalent. In addition, Drug Policy Alliance research has shown that drug use rates are similar across racial and ethnic groups. In spite of the similarity, Blacks are more likely to be arrested, convicted, and sentenced to harsher penalties for drug offenses than their white counterparts.

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A Prison Population There are about 537,000 non-violent marijuana possessors put in American prisons every year. By legalizing marijuana we could get all of these people out of prison and bring them back to their families. Marijuana users are put in danger when brought to jail because they are not tough violent criminals and could be violently assaulted and raped, this creates an unsafe area for them. B Help For Addiction

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Starting from the beginning, I will tell you what marijuana - also called grass, ganja, pot, and various other slang terms - is. Marijuana comes from the Indian hemp plant and is the greenish-brown mixture of the dried flowers of cannabis sativa. When I was younger I used to believe that speaking positively about Marijuana, makes you look like a bad personage or either worse, a criminal. This opinion was based on the false information media produced and on the government laws of my country. However, by enhancing my knowledge, I have decided that cannabis offers so much to humanity, that not only it has many benefits, it has to be legalized.

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