Article Rebuttal: Legalization of Marijuana
BCOM/275
November 1, 2011
Dave Moses

This term paper is to examine an article based on an argument to legalize marijuana.
In this article the author looks at the benefits of legalizing marijuana. One of the first items that is examined in the article is the taxation that the government could place on marijuana if it were to be legalized. The author examines when the marijuana tax act and how when it was implemented in 1937 it had an impact and was met with opposing force by companies who would’ve gone bankrupt if marijuana were to legalized. The author writes “The Marijuana Tax Act, which passed in 1937, coincidentally occurred just as the decoricator machine was invented. With this invention, hemp would have been able to take over competing industries almost instantaneously. William Hearst owned enormous acres of forest so his interest in preventing the growth of hemp can be easily explained. Competition from hemp would have easily driven the Hearst paper-manufacturing company out of business and significantly lowered the value of his land.”(1) The author suggests that the business end of the spectrum here is the only thing that kept the legalization of marijuana from happening. More was taken into account when thinking about legalizing marijuana.
There is an often over looked part of the legalization of marijuana it’s not the costs of the prohibition it’s the costs of that are incurred form the use of it. The impact that is felt on law enforcement may not be as severe as originally thought. “Caulkins & Sevigny (2005) found that the percentage of people in prison for marijuana use is less than one half of one percent (0.1-0.2 percent).” (2) So the thought that government would save money on the prosecution of marijuana is in fact an invalid point. When the above stat is mentioned the majority of those in