...and a senior fellow at Cato, and Katherine Waldock, professor of economics at New York University, estimate that legalizing drugs would save the government approximately $41.3 billion annually on expenditures related to the enforcement of prohibition. Legalization would reduce state and federal deficits by eliminating expenditure on prohibition enforcement, arrests, prosecutions, and incarceration and by allowing governments to collect tax revenue on legalized sales. Many people are concerned that the legalizing of soft drugs such as marijuana would lead to the legalizing of other harder drugs such as cocaine, heroin, or even crack. Stoned driving and other dangers would be increased. Marijuana use isn't truly a "victimless crime" when you consider all the crimes that may be committed when the user is under the influence of the drug. Drunk driving is still a major problem in our society despite all the education and stiff penalties. "Driving high" would be even harder to detect. Unless the user has been smoking in the car, there isn't as distinctive of a smell as there is with alcohol. Also, there's always the possibility that the lapse in judgment caused by drug use will lead to harder crimes like rape or robbery. Legalization would increase the chances of the drug falling into the hands of kids. Even unhealthy legal items such as cigarettes and alcohol are prohibited from being sold to kids. This is because kids generally don't exhibit the same reasoning, responsibility, and...
Words: 337 - Pages: 2
...treat the problem of drug abuse as a medical problem not a criminal one. It is estimated that the United States government spends $10 billion dollars a year in its attempts to keep Marijuana off the street, while the State of California has revenue of 14 billion annually for the production of its legalized medicinal Marijuana.5If Marijuana is legalized The U.S. can tax the revenues and will have additional fund that can be used for awareness of the drugs affects and treatment. During the prohibition of alcohol during the 1920's the Mafia could produce alcohol and had a considerable control over others who wanted it. The role that the Mafia played in the 1920's has transformed into the corner drug dealers and drug cartel of the 1990's. Legalization will result in a decrease in deaths and violence due to the unregulated black-market trade or Marijuana. 1 out of 6 people in jail are in for non-violent drug offenses6. Prisons are overcrowded and it is very costly to keep people in prison. Legalizing Marijuana would make room for more violent offenders. Unlike Alcohol and prescription drugs, Marijuana is not lethal by overdosing. A study in 2009 by U.S. Department of Health and Human Studies published that 69.7 million Americans are current users of tobacco products, 15 million Americans abuse alcohol, and only 4.2 million Americans abuse Marijuana.7 Everyday 1,000 people die from smoking related illnesses, 550 die from alcohol related...
Words: 500 - Pages: 2
...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...
Words: 562 - Pages: 3
...still come away with 321.6 billion dollars from sales. The DEA alone has an annual budget of two billion dollars, but they only cut the drug money profit by 17.7 billion over the past five years (Agency, 2004). While losing a war by such a wide margin, it is hard to believe anyone thinks things are getting any better. The government tried prohibition in the 1920’s and the crime rates spiked because people produced, smuggled, sold, and consumed the banned substance. The same goes for drugs. The argument about legalizing drugs has a push-pull correlation and always will. However, the reasons why drugs should be legalized have a stronger defense than why they shouldn’t be. The most heated argument out about drugs as of now is the legalization of marijuana. The financial benefits of legalizing marijuana alone are worth it in the eyes of the right person. The state of California would generate a tax revenue of 1.4 billion dollars off of the 14 billion dollars of currently untaxed marijuana sells. If the production and distribution of drugs was regulated by the government, people will be less likely to turn to the streets to obtain drugs. The government will be able to control the production and sell of marijuana the same way they control the sell of alcohol and tobacco. The opposition to the...
Words: 742 - Pages: 3
...Legalizing Marijuana Article Rebuttal Bruce Wayne BCOM/275 October 24, 2011 Dr. Phil Jackson Legalizing Marijuana Article Rebuttal A persuasive article on legalizing marijuana was published by TIME magazine. The reasoning for legalizing marijuana was that it would generate the government an estimated 1.4 million dollars in tax money. This figure does not include additional taxation which could be applied to activities or jobs within the agricultural, marketing, and retailing sectors that would be generated if marijuana where to be legalized. Although legalization of marijuana may produce more jobs, stimulate the economy, and possibly reduce the majority of crime produced by the illegal distribution of marijuana. I still disagree with the idea and choose to rebuttal this article for the lack of reliability, validity of data used, and the faulty comparison that was displayed in this article. First off, TIME magazine is a well-known newsmagazine that has been publishing articles on politics, world issues, and business related topics since March 3, 1923 (TIME magazine, 2012). They are also partners with Cable News Network (CNN) which is a respected news source. Both of these factors are enough to convince the majority of individuals to think they are reliable sources when reading information regarding certain topics. For the most part they are, unfortunately I found a correction noted on the bottom of this article which causes me to think otherwise. The correction...
Words: 1520 - Pages: 7
...Marijuana should be standardized and legalized because the illegality of it hasn’t stopped its wide use. Keeping marijuana illegal lets the black market thrive; similar to what happened when alcohol was illegal. Marijuana being prohibited causes violence from bad drug deals. Law enforcements attention cannot focus on the more serious drug offenders because too much time is being taken up citing “marijuana only” offenders. Not only will legalizing marijuana reduce crime, and bring harsher drug dealers to justice; it will also transfer its money power into the economy. Prohibition of marijuana makes society worse. It is generating violence, and money for the black market. This money could be used in our own “struggling” economy. Marijuana being illegal is causing the police to focus their time and effort toward marijuana offenders; this valuable time should be focused toward harsher crime that occurs. The prisons are being filled with marijuana offenders, enabling the release of sex offenders. Legalizing marijuana will eliminate small time dealers, and expose more serious and violent dealers. Marijuana being legalized would mean it would be sold in government regulated concessions, and would be standardized. Customers would not risk buying laced marijuana that could be detrimental to their health. “What are the policy lessons of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States, 1920-1933?” (Hall, W 2010), states during those years, prohibition did not prevent Americans from...
Words: 403 - Pages: 2
...Many people debate if marijuana is an herb or a drug/poison, but since early 2001 marijuana was legalized which provided a set regulations towards legal access to marijuana. The restrictions for the uses of marijuana are that only allowed to be used with a license prescribed by a doctor and can be only used for medical purposes. Marijuana is known for paralyzing the pain and treats many diseases. Marijuana can also only be prescribed for 90 days by a doctor. Its uses are mainly treating migraines, inflammatory diseases, cancer, fibromyalgia (a medical disorder that spread pains into muscles) and other related diseases. Canada is also one of the first country to legalize marijuana, but because of this decision, more cons outweighs the pros. For instance, legalizing marijuana can send a message to devolving young that is right to smoke because is not against the law. Crime rates and recreational usage of marijuana can also dramatically increase since there is less protective law against it. A lot of our tax money also goes in to healthcare and marijuana is part of that system. Marijuana is a negative impact towards the media, society and economy and the final decision should be reconsider for more possibilities of changes. The laws and restrictions for marijuana have been taken too lightly since the legalizing of marijuana. Many people are abusing and taking advantage of the abandment of illegal use of marijuana. One example of people taking advantage is now more recreational use...
Words: 791 - Pages: 4
...ensures that effort to pass this bill will never stop. Proposition 19 protesters argue that legalizing marijuana creates abuse among adolescents. In the article “Why We Should Not Legalize Marijuana”, Dr. Robert L. DuPont stated, “Marijuana is the most commonly abused illegal drug in the U.S. and around the world.” The United States Drug enforcement Agency has classified marijuana as a drug that has an extreme potential for abuse. They categorized marijuana as a schedule I drug which is under the same category as cocaine, heroin and morphine. Parents fear that the legalization of marijuana enables easier access for their kids to obtain this abusive drug. In essence, they believe that marijuana is the gateway to other drugs; therefore, legalizing marijuana would affect the younger generations. Furthermore, they also argue that marijuana is unsafe and does not offer us any medical usage or benefits. In “Legalization of Marijuana: Potential Impact on Youth”, pediatrics argue that marijuana will...
Words: 727 - Pages: 3
...Amanda Steuer May 6, 14 Consequences of Legalizing Recreational Marijuana and Hemp Throughout the US Colorado is expected to bring in $185 million in revenue from taxing recreational marijuana sales. This money will be used to fund substance abuse support, law enforcement support, education support and funds to what they call “statewide coordination.” Recreational marijuana alone however, cannot get our federal government out of the hole that it is in now. Even if the revenue was about $100 million from ever state that has recreation cannabis, and if all states had legal recreational cannabis, it would still not even get close to how much money the government needs to generate. The problem with that is that once the government legalizes marijuana recreationally everywhere, it will create a black market due to people not wanting to be charged such outrageous prices and taxed so intensely. If certain states make marijuana recreationally legal, that would be for the best in my opinion. The US government wouldn’t really benefit from that amount of money even if all the states were legal, there was no black market and everyone was making a lot of money. According to an article in Forbes about a report made on the inefficiencies of legalized cannabis, Colorado won’t even make half of what they were estimating to make. The article explains how right now the cost of growing is around four hundred dollars per pound of cannabis. This price would have to increase to eleven hundred...
Words: 502 - Pages: 3
...Medical Marijuana In 1972, the United States put marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. They believed it had no probable medical use. Since that time 23 states as well as Washington DC have legalizes the use of medical marijuana. The legalization of Marijuana has been an ongoing topic for the past couple of years in the United States. Several different opinions have been made but ultimately it comes down to people who are pro marijuana and those who oppose it. Some argue that medical marijuana is safe and effective for several different diseases such as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma etc. Although marijuana use has been around for ages and probably has done more to help then hurt many people do not want to see it legalized. People who are opposed to the legalization fear that it is dangerous and leads to harder drug use. This argument is has been presented quite often. Health classroom across the United States teach children that marijuana is a gateway drug. Some of the other reasons for not legalizing marijuana are that if legalized for medicinal use recreational use will spike, especially among teens and adolescents. However, studies have proven that inaccurate. According to a study by the National bureau of Economic Research concluded that there was no significant increase in pot use by teenagers who lived in states where it was legalized. I personally believe that medical marijuana should be legalized. It seems to have helped more than it has hurt. I honestly...
Words: 498 - Pages: 2
...The right to legalize marijuana has been around for a long time. As the years passed people have brought back the issue of legalizing marijuana. And for this reason is why people are taking action to oppose the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana should not be legalized. Marijuana should not be legalized because of its physical effects, financial problems, and government issues. First of all, marijuana should not be legalized because of the physical effects. The use of marijuana affects the person by causing “impairment of short-term memory, logical thinking, hallucinations, energy loss, toxic effect on brain nerve cells, risk of chronic bronchitis, impaired immune system, and etc” (about.com). Because of these of effects many people should know why they shouldn’t smoke marijuana. And by not legalizing marijuana many people don’t have to worry about these effects. Second, marijuana should not be legalized because it causes financial problems. By smoking marijuana many people would end up buying marijuana instead of their needs. For example, people would rather buy marijuana instead of buying food for their family. Since people who smoke marijuana, they have a craving for it (Time magazine). And if marijuana were not legalized, less people would have to go through those cravings. Third, marijuana should not be legalized because of government issues. If marijuana is legalized the government would not make any money since the people wont be buying cigarettes any...
Words: 334 - Pages: 2
...Alex Gort Essay on Legalizing Marijuana College Eng. Marijuana also known as Cannabis is one of the biggest drug in the U.S.A. and I believe it should be legalized because of certain reasons and examples that I have. First it’s a known fact that you can’t die from smoking weed A.K.A. Marijuana, second from experience and from other people, they said they haven’t heard people getting sick from smoking weed so it’s like helping you not getting you sick, the only thing that’s bad is the type of stuff u smoking out of, Last but not least I believe it would bring down crime rate in the U.S.A. I know for a fact that you cannot die from marijuana, the reason I say that is because I still haven’t heard a story or an article about somebody dying from smoking weed. Plus I know a lot of people that do smoke weed and they are perfectly fine. Even some people told me that smoking weed can help you out to a certain extinct; the reason why I say that is because I know that in hospital they give out weed to certain people that need it. Also it calms you down when you smoke marijuana so why not legalize it? This reason is the one that really made me say that marijuana is not bad for you because from experience and from other people I haven’t seen people or heard of people getting sick like that when they smoke marijuana I really don’t know the reason why, but I really need to get into that so I can find out because that is a good research question and project to do. My homeboy smoke...
Words: 598 - Pages: 3
...The Great Marijuana Debate Cory Williamson Keri Keith University Composition and Communication 2 May 08, 2014 The Great Marijuana Debate A question that has been asked over decades is “What should the US do about marijuana?” Recently Colorado voted for the legalization of recreational marijuana, and according to the New York Times article by Rick Lyman (2-26-14), the state is bringing in more money than expected. There are Arguments for and against the legalization of marijuana. Some of the arguments for legalization are the medical benefits, high taxation dollars, and the creation of new jobs. Those who oppose the legalization of marijuana cite a higher crime rate, consequences of smoking to both the user and the family, and more people becoming addicted. The medical advantages of marijuana are well documented, but many people prefer to keep it illegal; however, economic possibilities compared to criminal consequences show the benefits of legalization. “Something that cannot be argued is the stimulation that selling and taxing marijuana would provide to both the state and national economies,” according to Rick Lyman. Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, in a CNN.com interview with Evan Perez (2-17-14), said that marijuana shops opened in Colorado and the revenue from sales alone was over one million dollars. Colorado also has a 12.9 percent tax rate statewide on regulated recreational marijuana. Using those statistics, the predicted sales and tax...
Words: 1462 - Pages: 6
...a. What will happen to existing supply avenues? Marijuana is mostly sold on the black market, except in states that have legalized the drug. In those states most have stores with specialized licenses, much like a permit to sell alcohol. The supply avenues will change from secret black markets to a farm economy trade system. b. Will legalization significantly change demand? How? Since marijuana use has yet to recede under prohibition, like alcohol did, you can expect a slight change in demand but not a huge jump. 7.6 million frequent users will not have to rely on black market trade and will be able to purchase legally. The 23.9 regular users will also have a place of business to buy. Marijuana market watchers expect there to be an uptick as states legalize but then a slight decline as the novelty will wear off. c. Would one expect prices to change significantly? How? Prices may changes slightly. At this time it costs approximately $15 a gram and $2500 for a pound of marijuana, according the Dan Schneider’s article Pot Economics. If the United States were to open the market for export they could expect a price drop due to competing markets that are already wide open in Uruguay and Mexico. Uruguay has an $1 per gram price. Exporting costs would have to include packaging and freight costs. d. What would be the costs and benefits to governments, both in changes in enforcement requirements and in potential tax revenue? There is a potential taxes revenue base of $500...
Words: 344 - Pages: 2
...The right to legalize marijuana has been around for a long time. As the years passed people have brought back the issue of legalizing marijuana. And for this reason is why people are taking action to oppose the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana should not be legalized. Marijuana should not be legalized because of its physical effects, financial problems, and government issues. First of all, marijuana should not be legalized because of the physical effects. The use of marijuana affects the person by causing “impairment of short-term memory, logical thinking, hallucinations, energy loss, toxic effect on brain nerve cells, risk of chronic bronchitis, impaired immune system, and etc” (about.com). Because of these of effects many people should know why they shouldn’t smoke marijuana. And by not legalizing marijuana many people don’t have to worry about these effects. Second, marijuana should not be legalized because it causes financial problems. By smoking marijuana many people would end up buying marijuana instead of their needs. For example, people would rather buy marijuana instead of buying food for their family. Since people who smoke marijuana, they have a craving for it (Time magazine). And if marijuana were not legalized, less people would have to go through those cravings. Third, marijuana should not be legalized because of government issues. If marijuana is legalized the government would not make any money since the people wont be buying cigarettes any...
Words: 334 - Pages: 2
