[420 Girl]

When I first considered the legality of marijuana many years ago, I was against its legalization because of marijuana’s stigma (for the record, I have never tried marijuana or wished to try it, and I most likely never will). However, after considering much economic, ethical, and scientific research concerning marijuana, I decided that society would benefit from the legalization of marijuana (and you should too).

According to a March 2007 article in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal, alcohol and tobacco are more physically harmful and addictive than marijuana. After considering this research, why is marijuana outlawed when two legal controlled substances – tobacco and alcohol – are more harmful and addictive? Drunk driving-related deaths and lung cancer are much more devastating than any stigma or effect of marijuana, yet many Americans turn a blind eye to this.

Yale Law School professor Steven Duke believes that the recent drug murders in Mexico (and along the border) are very similar to the Prohibition-era murders that occurred in the United States. Both Mexican gangs and American gangsters were motivated by the profits obtained by trafficking illegal controlled substances, marijuana and alcohol respectively. Duke contends that if marijuana was legal, the drug violence would most likely not exist. Outlawing marijuana is extremely expensive and one of Duke’s arguments for the legalization of marijuana is that legalization “would raise about $10 billion in taxes per year and would save another $10 billion we now spend on law enforcement and imprisoning marijuana users and distributors.”

Time magazine detailed the amount of money that is spent (or wasted) on the policing, court costs, and incarceration of marijuana users and traffickers. Almost $23 billion is spent per year on imprisoning criminals convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. Furthermore, according to the FBI about 225,000 arrests are made each year for possession of marijuana, the fourth most common cause in the U.S. Most of the money for the enforcement of marijuana laws is spent by the states, not the federal government, and this money could be better spent on public services if marijuana was legalized in every state.

Prison is a place that is primarily meant for violent and sexually-motivated criminals, not harmless marijuana users. If marijuana was legalized, police and court resources would be better directed to more serious and dangerous crimes.

There is no credible research existing in the United States showing that marijuana is a “gateway drug,” meaning using it will lead to the use of more harmful drugs like cocaine or heroin. The only source to effectively argue that marijuana use leads to the use of other drugs (particularly amphetamines) is from Australia, not America.

The moralists who argue that marijuana is “bad” are just as irrational if not worse than those who argued against alcohol during Prohibition. Marijuana is already among schoolchildren and outlawing it won’t make it go away; good parenting and common sense will.

You don’t agree with the lifestyles of those who smoke weed? Neither do I. Can you not stand hippies, stoners, or beatniks? I can’t either, but that doesn’t mean they should be arrested, jailed, fined, and persecuted for their actions when they harm no one else. A free society such as ours should allow free citizens the freedom to partake in any activity that doesn't harm others.

As Yale Law School professor Steven Duke states, the government should “apply the lessons we learned from alcohol prohibition and finish dismantling the destructive prohibition experiment. We should begin by decriminalizing marijuana now.” I couldn’t agree more (and so should you).

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