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Issue Exploration Essay

Many laws and court rulings that take place in the U.S. often leaves members of society

baffled. A massive debate such as, should marijuana offenders be behind bars, causes a huge

split amongst citizens and effects the lives of everyone and has two strong view points for each

side of the issue.

American prisons have more incarcerated people than any other country in the world.

There reason is there are many first-time offenders that are incarcerated for marijuana related

crimes. In an article by NORML studies in 2015 showed, “Nearly half (44.3 percent) of federal

marijuana inmates are offenders with minimal criminal histories who have not previously served

time in prison. Eight-five percent of marijuana offenders did not possess a firearm.” (Laura.

“Working to Reform Marijuana Laws.”) Most people who are held in US prisons are marijuana

offenders who aside from possession or using hadn’t created a crime prior to the offense. Not

only are these first-time offenders going to prison, but they are often being held with people who

have committed dangerous acts such as robbery, assault, and other violent crimes. There still

needs to be punishment for people who are committing these low-level crimes and instead of

paying to keep them in prison there should be a fine they have to pay instead of felonies. Bill

Piper with DrugPolicy.Org breaks down exactly how much money goes into arresting one person

for possession which includes, “It takes up to three hours to process someone after an arrest. And

since most arrests involve multiple officers in multiple police cars it’s potentially dozens of lost

police hours just to arrest one person for marijuana. It costs an estimated $10,000 to arrest,

process, and convict someone for marijuana possession” (Bill Piper, www.drugpolicy.org). That

does not include the booking, holding, court hearing, processing, and the actual sentence of the
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person. This is the amount per person that citizens pay in taxes when instead we could not spend

thousands of dollars and have them pay into the system instead.

However, there are also many reasons as to why marijuana should not be decriminalized

and why it should be kept illegal. The biggest reason is that impaired driving tends to be worse

while a person is high off marijuana. In a report conducted by Kurtis Lee from Government

Technology he writes, “those states saw a 2.7 percent increase in collision claims, according to

the study from the Highway Loss Data Institute. The group used data from insurance claims and

not law enforcement records.” (Kurtis Lee, GoVTech.com). This is a concerning thought for

drivers because that puts all lives on the road in danger. There hasn’t been anything made as a

breathalyzer for police to test someone for smoking marijuana and that is an extreme fear for any

person. In another study written by Richard Berman with the Washington Times it talks about

collisions as far as people who are high and it reports, “Research shows that it disrupts the brain

areas that regulate posture, coordination, balance and reaction time. These side effects are why

several large studies find that that drivers high on marijuana are three to seven times more likely

to be responsible for a car accident.” (Richard Berman, Thewashingtontimes.com). As

mentioned above this issue is extreme fear to anyone that is on the road because any type of

distracted driving is dangerous and puts everyone’s life at risk. It’s illegal and a deadly crime to

drive while under the influence of alcohol, it needs to be reprimanded if someone is driving

under the influence of marijuana. Citizens would rather spend money to make sure that people

are committing such deadly acts are in prison rather than the roads putting lives at stake but

again happens with alcohol as well. It’s time to look at both stand points of the issue and find a

middle ground that supports each side of the issue.

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As a nation, we need to prompt our government to take serious action and reconsider

what is now in place when it comes to marijuana offenders and the laws surrounding it. This

issue is one that greatly affects taxpayers and all citizens due to the high prison populations as

well as marijuana users driving behind the wheel.

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APA Citations:
- Berman, R. (2016, August 01). Voting down pot. Retrieved February 12, 2018, from
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/1/a-case-against-legalizing-marijuana/

- L. (2015, November 12). Working to Reform Marijuana Laws. Retrieved February 11,
2018, from http://norml.org/news/2015/11/12/report-one-in-eight-federal-drug-prisoners-
serving-time-for-marijuana-offenses

- Lee, K. (2017, June 23). New Data May Bolster Arguments Against Marijuana
Legalization. Retrieved February 12, 2018, from http://www.govtech.com/data/New-
Data-May-Bolster-Arguments-Against-Marijuana-Legalization.html

- Piper, B. (2014, June 16). Thousands of Rapists Are Not Behind Bars Because Cops
Focus on Marijuana Users. Retrieved February 11, 2018, from
http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/thousands-rapists-are-not-behind-bars-because-cops-
focus-marijuana-users