Legalize It!
John G. Krape JR
COM/156
June 19, 2011
Lugene Rosen

Legalize It!
The legalization of marijuana would not hurt the country, but it would benefit it in many ways. Alcohol and tobacco are legal although they are more harmful than marijuana, which can be used to raise revenue, decrease the crime rate, and help heal the sick. Marijuana, or cannabis, has many positives much good can come from it being legal. Some of the main positives of legalizing marijuana include raising revenue for the country as a whole, decreasing the crime rate and number of prisoners, and it can be used as a cheap way for people to self-medicate. As with everything where there are positives there are negatives. Some negatives that could be argued would include how the government would control it, what to do with prisoners who were arrested prior to the legalization, and what kind of damage long term use could cause. The benefits of legalizing cannabis outweigh the negative side of it, like raising the revenue and economy of this country.
One reason why marijuana should be legalized is that it can raise the revenue and economy of this country tenfold in a short period of time. People do not just start doing something because it becomes available in mass quantities with no prosecution. Marijuana can be grown by companies, like Phillip Morris a cigarette company, and taxed by the government. A high tax should be put on the product of course, making enjoying it a rare occasion. Alcohol and tobacco are legal products in this country, and the government profits from the taxes on these products. The demand for marijuana has caused a multi-billion dollar industry, and as of 1992, it is the nation’s leading cash crop (Gettman, 1993). A report from the Department of Health and Human Services of 1991 shows that a large number of Americans use, have used, or have experimented with the drug. One- third of the American population 12 and older has tried the drug, 10 million people use the drug on a daily basis, and 20 million people are the occasional user. California has made marijuana legal for medicinal purposes, and recently the dispensaries selling this medical marijuana have started paying taxes. The estimates of sales taxes for marijuana in California equal $220 million to a billion dollars a year (Parloff, 2009;). One state has the potential to gain one billion dollars a year from medical marijuana alone. Imagine if all 50 states had recreational marijuana and it was taxed. There is some controversy to the government legalizing marijuana, one of them being that it is too hard to control. Marijuana can be grown almost anywhere. Another negative side to recreational marijuana is the fact the drug companies may not be needed anymore. Not only would the Government obtain a monetary gain from tax revenue, but they would also spend less money on the prison system.
Entirely too much money is spent on the prison system in a year. Enjoying a joint or having a small bag of marijuana should not be the cause of spending a few years in prison, or a few thousand on the prison system. People are arrested every day for non-violent drug crimes. These people spend time in prison with real criminals, like serial killers, rapists, gang members, and thieves. The men and women arrested for non-violent drug crimes will never be the same. They will go into prison a normal human being, and after spending time in tight confines with the real menaces to society, they are released a different person. If marijuana was legalized fewer people would go to prison, and in turn less money would be spent on the prison system. Making something that is harmless and enjoyed by millions illegal does not better the country, it makes it worse. During the Great Depression during the Reagan years alcohol was banned. This ban did not stop crime it actually caused, and promoted crime. People were making alcohol in their basements, and were doing whatever they could to get their buzz. Making this drug legal would mean fewer killings over a “bad deal” with marijuana. Also legalizing this drug would give the police more time to focus on the real crimes that society faces, like murders, robberies, abuse, and rape. The United States houses a greater proportion of its citizens in prisons than any other country in the world-more than Russia and China, more than South America during apartheid and maybe even more then North Korea (Walmsley, 2007). It costs nearly $8 billion dollars a year to prosecute the sale and possession of marijuana. There were a high number of arrests for marijuana in 2003, a staggering 750,000, and only 88% of them were for possession. Incarceration of a prisoner can cost upwards of $20,000 per prisoner, and that equals $13.2 billion spent in 2003. That is 660,000 people arrested for having some cannabis on their person. That is 660,000 rapists, murderers, and thieves that could have been removed from the streets. Legalizing marijuana will affect the prison system in a big way, like dealing with the citizens who were arrested for these crimes. Spending any amount of time in prison can be harmful to your health, weather it is physical or mental. Smoking marijuana is nowhere near as unhealthy as spending a stint in prison.
Although smoking anything can be harmful to your health; smoking marijuana is nowhere near as unhealthy as smoking tobacco, which is legal. Smoking tobacco causes cancer, and in most states if you have cancer they prescribe marijuana to ease the pain. In California, and many other states, marijuana is prescribed for many health issues, like depression, insomnia, loss of hunger, muscle pain, and even bone and joint pain. The legalization of marijuana for medicine has helped hundreds of thousands of people. If marijuana was made legal for recreation everyone would have cheap sources for pain relief. A few negatives of this is that people could become dependent on the plant to help relieve them of pain, or even worse the drug prescription companies could go out of business. One way to keep the drug companies from going out of business would be for the companies to research the plant and make a pill form that is available only through prescription. If a person is feeling depressed they can smoke a joint and feel ok again, and if a person is suffering from back pain they could enjoy some cannabis and be pain free. Marijuana is the universal medicine, the cure all drug, but there are too many companies at risk if it becomes legal. A report from the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) stated that there are many benefits from ingesting marijuana. Cannabis can control pain, stimulate appetite, and even combat nausea. The IOM also announced that marijuana has the potential for becoming a sedative or a nausea reducer, which could have a therapeutic effect. The IOM argued that marijuana is neither addictive nor a “Gateway Drug”, there is just no proof. Even though smoking marijuana can cause small damage to the lungs, there are many alternatives to taking the drug, like a water pipe which filters out most of the smoke, making it slightly healthier.
The legalization of marijuana, or Cannabis, has many more benefits that outweigh the negatives. Marijuana could be controlled and taxed by the government, raising the economy and revenue of our wonderful free country. The legalization of marijuana would also lessen the amount of crime and prisoners in the prison system, saving the country even more money as a whole. There is no solid proof that marijuana is unhealthy for people, other than it may cause some slight damage to the lungs, but tobacco is more dangerous and can cause ten times as much damage to the lungs, and it is legal. The negatives of marijuana are not serious ones, but just annoying ones. Marijuana can be grown anywhere making it difficult for the government to control completely. There will be prosecuted criminals of non-violent drug crimes to be dealt with. Finally marijuana can cause small amounts of lung damage, but if it is not smoked in large amounts daily it won’t affect them at all. Ultimately marijuana can, and will do better legal than it would if it stays illegal. America vote yes to legalize it, marijuana is the answer.

Citations Page:
The Latest Fiscal Buzz? Medical Marijuana. (07/19/2010). Retrieved June 17, 2011, from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/detail?sid=3dcd5bf7-e5e3-46d5-a578-5c2a392388c1%40sessionmgr13&vid=2&hid=6&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d
Crime, cash, and limited options: Explaining the prison boom. (03/27/2009) Retrieved June 17, 2011, from http://ehis.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e1c0ad2a-29a6-4d5d-a877-43120d674839%40sessionmgr112&vid=2&hid=115
Effects of smoked cannabis and oral delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol on nausea and emesis after cancer chemotherapy: a review of state clinical trials. (2001) Retrieved June 17, 2011. From http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/ehost/detail?sid=6c72274e-0687-4ae4-99e6-e18161cf3b57%40sessionmgr12&vid=1&hid=15&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d