I have always wondered why everyone makes such a big deal about marijuana, making sure to focus only on the negative points. Some people that I have met claim that they think that marijuana is a bad thing because alters a person’s state of mind and messes with their sense of judgment. In all reality, this is the same effect that alcohol produces (if not slightly milder), but alcohol is completely legal. In fact, the law judge of the Drug Enforcements Administration claimed in 1988 that “marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.”[1]I’m shocked that the American government still hasn’t decriminalized marijuana, knowing how much revenue the country misses out on by keeping it illegal.
There are around 700,000 arrests a year for marijuana charges in America.[2] When seen from a financial standpoint, it has been estimated that over 10 million dollars goes into just enforcing marijuana laws. With the country in such a financial crisis with the war in Iraq continuing, it seems odd that they wouldn’t take advantage of saving these costs by simply reforming laws against marijuana. Why waste millions of money spent by tax payers only to enforce a law that any disagree with? Instead of cracking down on people with petty amounts of marijuana, why not turn the efforts into making profit off of marijuana by legalizing and taxing it like cigarettes? The economy may be horrible, but if the government would rethink its decision on criminalizing marijuana, we could decrease the national deficit by a significant amount.
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