The issue of legalizing cannabis (commonly known as marijuana or weed) for recreational use in America is a huge battle today. Some may say that legalizing marijuana for recreational use will allow the police to focus on more violent crimes. What this group of people do not realize is how terrible the effects of regularly smoking marijuana are for your body both mentally and physically. Along with the terrible effects on your body this drug will also increase crimes involving drugs. Marijuana should not be legalized because of the health side effects, crimes associated, and the costs of legalizing it. Marijauna destroys your body both mentally and physically. People who regularly smoke this plant have devastating side effects in their …show more content…
Some think that legalizing it would allow the police to focus on more violent crimes, but this is not the case. One example of this is explained on denverpost.com. This website states that nearly 1/3 of all crimes committed in Denver occur within one thousand feet of a medical marijauna dispensary. These very same events are also happening in Amsterdam, another place where marijauna is legal. One might wonder why there are articles everywhere stating that the crime rate has gone down since weed was legalized. This statement is false. There are two reporting mechanisms that crimes are tracked though. The first is called the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and the second is called the FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). The Denver Police Department uses the NIBRS because it is a more detailed account of what happens compared to the UCR. huffingtonpost.com states that the statistics from the Denver NIBRS prove that crime is up 7 percent compared to last year, public drunkenness is up 237 percent, and drug violations are up 20 percent. Why are marijuana advocates getting away with fake information? They are blending information from the UCR and NIBRS to find some numbers they want to share with the public to support their cause. Unlike marijuana supporters claim, Crime rate is in fact increasing in Colorado where weed is legalized