(United Nations Office of Drugs, 2006)
4. There has been no recorded fatality from overdose of marijuana. (Walker/Huang, 2002)
5. Medical cannabis has been used for ~4000 years.

Even most national and local law consider possession of marijuana offenses similar to passion of cocaine, the two drugs are vastly different. Cocaine has killed and continues to kill people. Marijuana, on the other hand, has not resulted in one death where it was the proven cause of death. To treat marijuana in the same category as other more dangerous drugs undermines the perceived danger of the more serious drugs.

A total of 13 states have legalized some form of medical marijuana (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.) This leaves 37 states that should be using a medicine that has proven to be helpful to patients experiencing excruciating gout and nerve pain(Alden, 2008).

1. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. The U.S is followed by
China. (Walmsley, 2007)
2. ~60,000 people are incarcerated in the U.S on marijuana charges each year costing
$1.2billion.(Federation of American Scientists, 1999)

3. Since marijuana has been proven to be a safe for use in moderate quantity(Current Opinion in
Pharmacology, 2005), legalizing it would free up America\u2019s overcrowded prisons saving cost and making
space for more dangerous criminals.

1. The state government could make as much as $1.1B in income taxes just from taxing the legal
marijuana companies. (Brown, 2003)
2. In all, state and national governments combine to spend $77.8billion annually in fighting drugs.
Approximately 20% is spent on marijuana enforcement. Legalizing would free up $15.56billion in
addition to the taxes.
3. Marijuana tax in all could bring the national government $23 billion a year. This money can be put
back into the struggling economy.

1. President Nixon\u2019s national commission recommended that marijuana no longer be a criminal offense.
To that, Nixon responded \u201cWe need, and I use the word 'all out war,' or all fronts\u201d (Nixon's Oval Office
tapes)
2. The year after Nixon announced War on Drugs, arrests for marijuana went up by 100,000
3. Nixon is the only President to have resigned after his involvement in the Watergate scandal. It is very
questionable to continue with a policy that has cost trillions of dollars and signed into law by a fraudulent
president against the recommendation of his advisers.

1. ~$23 billion a year is spent by national government enforcing marijuana laws. Meanwhile, many US
prisons are overcrowded and short on budget.
2. To balance the budget, some prisons are letting convicts out early (McClatchy, 2009). In Kentucky, to
save $30M, the state let out 1800 inmates, including some convicted of murder and rape.
3. Each year over 700,000 are arrested on marijuana possession charges. Many of these end up in jail. At
a time when prisons are overcrowded and having to release murderers, legalizing marijuana would keep
people with no desire to cause any harm out of prison. This would save prisons money and even more
importantly, not require more dangerous criminals to be released early.
4. Law enforcement across the country is already exercising judgment on whether to go after marijuana
cases.

1. Hundreds of celebrities have admitted to using marijuana. These celebrities are not necessary from the
\u201cdelinquent\u201d group with a bad reputation. Examples include Michael Phelps, Whoopi Goldberg and
Barack Obama\u2014all of them have admitted to trying or regularly smoking marijuana.(The View, 2009)
2. In 2007, 14.5M people in United States used marijuana (Gettman, 2008). Additionally, most of the
users of marijuana do not feel as if they are breaking the law. They are also mentally stable and healthy.
When such a large population is \u201cbreaking\u201d a law and the law cannot be justified, it begs the population
and the government to question the law in the first place.