Term paper on Marijuana

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Has the time come to legalize marijuana?

Marijuana has been known to man for quite some time now and has been used for centuries. The Marijuana prohibition has been in effect since 1937 and continues today. The real question is, is it time that we as Americans reconsider this prohibition and look closer at the possible positive effects that marijuana can offer?

If the main goal of marijuana prohibition is to stop Americans from using it, then it has failed just like the alcohol prohibition did in 1920 when it was enforced. Studies clearly show that out of the three substances of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, that marijuana is the least addictive (Schlosser, 1994, p.41). This also doesn’t mean that marijuana is harmless. Research shows that marijuana damages short term

memory, distorts perceptions, impairs judgment and complex motor skills, alters heart rates, and has the potential to trigger severe anxiety, paranoia, and lethargy (Shalala, 1995, p.10).

According to NORML (The National Organization to Reform Marijuana laws) marijuana is said to be the second largest cash crop in America and has a value of around $14 billion. Revenues for Marijuana is said to have annual sale production as large as the Coca-Cola Company’s (Warner pg. 32-33)

The Marijuana trade is obviously very valuable and is often overlooked . If we took the amount of marijuana purchased annually and taxed it, it would be around 250 million dollars in tax money that the government isn’t receiving due to the fact that marijuana is illegal. Besides the fact that the government is losing out on a lump sum of tax money, the government spends an incredible amount to keep marijuana illegal. Some of the expenses are: cost of active law enforcement, cost of prosecution of accused offenders, cost of incarceration of convicted offenders, cost of (publicly funded) anti-drug education and propaganda, hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that would be generated if drugs were legal and taxed, public cost of funerals for police officers killed in sting operations, cost of foster care and social services for children of incarcerated offenders. (http://lightning.prohosting.com/~mlo/)

Many people argue that if marijuana is legalized, then "harder" drugs such as cocaine, heroin, acid ect.. will take over because marijuana is said to be a "gateway" drug. People are afraid that the legalization of marijuana will lead to a drug happy corrupt society. This could very well be a good point and is definitely something the government should look further into before legalizing marijuana. There is also another point of view that thinks that if marijuana is legalized, then the drug dealers would be virtually eliminated, and almost all of the "hard drugs" are connected with marijuana dealers.

Another major argument is the use of jail cells for marijuana offenders. Jail overcrowding is not uncommon these days and a lot has to do with the imprisonment of marijuana offenders. Some people feel that marijuana is bad and offenders should do their time in jail, wile other people argue that the...

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