Anonymous

Little things that can make a big difference

It is a well known and commonly accepted as a fact that America is in the

slums economically. Mark Kiesel, executive vice president at Pimco (a company that

proposes global investment solutions) says that he “expects unemployment to rise

to as high as 8% in the next year or so. Many experts note that real unemployment

may be much higher than the official figure of 6% because those numbers don't

include those who have stopped looking for work.” (Waggoner) Our individual

economic problems arise from our foundation, the government. Those of us that do

have jobs and are stuck paying taxes are supporting a failed flawed system. The

system is flawed and failed because we have a democratic government and a large

population of uniformed voters. With a lack of jobs, motivated investors and an

increase in crime that we have been seeing in the USA, it is obvious we will have a

rough road of balancing economics ahead of us. For our country to go in the other

direction we need a more politically active population. We need people who want to

look deep past all the political point scoring and make a decision to change.

This year alone the states have spent $“10,685,784,513” on the war on drugs

(War). “People Arrested for Drug Law Offenses this Year: 640,874” (War). Meaning

our tax money will be continuously funneled to the task of taking care of these

prisoners until their release. Approximately (not exactly because it is a constantly

changing statistic) half of those arrests where marijuana related. I believe it is the

little details like legalizing recreational use of marijuana that can make a big

difference in the economy today because of all the money that can be saved and

generated.
 Legalizing marijuana is estimated to “generate an additional $2.2 billion in

tax revenue, according to a report by Professor Jeffrey A. Miron and endorsed by

500 economists”(Pearson). Right now with the economy the way it is I would say we

have better things to do than what we are doing now. Opting out of 2.2 billion

dollars for the government. With the current system all that money and more is

funneled into the hands of those who have no regard for law. On top of providing

income for criminals we spend money out of our pocket to prosecute, house, and

feed those who have chosen to smoke pot. The system we have in place right now

puts a pot smoker in jail with murders, and gives money to larger operations like the

Mexican drug cartels.

One counter argument to legalization of marijuana that made me rethink my

argument at first was the idea that legalizing marijuana would increase its exposure

to kids. At first glance yea, that makes sense. But if you realy think about it, the drug

dealers don’t care if you are a certain age they will sell to anyone, because they are

out just their to make money. As a teenager myself I can say being younger than 21

makes getting alcohol a challenge. If I wanted to get marijuana in almost any town

all one would have to do is hang out at a skate park and ask around. Some say that

what often happens with cigarettes would happen with marijuana, kids would be

stuck in a car with second hand smoke. First off if, they where driving intoxicated

they would be at risk of loosing their license. Second if the parent were so neglectful

to actually smoke in the same area as the child they probably would smoke

marijuana if it is legal or not.

 Some say that legalizing marijuana would have more health costs than the

money we would make and because it is unhealthy, it should be illegal. That makes

no sense at all! I can’t sit here and tell you that marijuana does not have harmful

effects, it does. However the effects of alcohol and cigarettes are far worse. We have

all seen the commercials about how many Americans die from cigarettes a lot. It has

been proven that cigarettes have things called free radicals. Free radicals are highly

reactive and they attach to the cells in your body and cause cancer. They have not

however been able to prove that marijuana has the same effects.

Right now we have bigger fish to fry than incinerating potheads. We are in an

Economic crisis and we need to change what we can and accept the things we

cannot. Prohibition of a substance that a large portion of the population uses did not

work last time with alcohol. Why would we continue down that road that we already

know so well? Alcohol prohibition did not work neither will prohibition of

marijuana. Look around, does any one actually think the war on drugs is working?

The only change we got from alcohol prohibition was the rise in mafia and other

organized crime. Simply put marijuana is cash crop and the war on drugs has failed

because of its prohibition of marijuana. Legalizing marijuana will take money out of

the hands of criminals and into the hands of the right people, people who abide by

the law.

Works cited
"War On Drugs Clock." DrugSense: Drug Law Reform. Ed. Matt Elrod.
Drug Sense. Web. 03 May 2010.
<http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm>.
Pearson, Spencer, and Larry Talley. "Legalize the Medicinal and
Recreational Use of Marijuana | Ideas for Change in America."
Change.org. Change.org, 01 Mar. 2010. Web. 03 May 2010.
<http://www.change.org/ideas/view/legalize_the_medicinal_and_r
ecreational_use_of_marijuana>
Waggoner, John. "Is Today's Economic Crisis Another Great
Depression? - USATODAY.com." News, Travel, Weather,
Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World -
USATODAY.com. USA Today, 11 Apr. 2008. Web. 03 May 2010.
<http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-11-03-
economy-depression-recession_N.htm>.

I used statistical facts for my evidence because I know that many people have

a hard time accepting my argument. In fact I did not even mention marijuana until
describing everything that I thought would be fixed by legalizing marijuana. Also

statistics on money appeals to people’s emotions, simply put people care about

where their money is going. Keeping to the facts and money was my way of keeping

the paper sounding educated. No one is going to listen to an argument advocating

recreational use of marijuana if the writer sounds like a stoner.

I think that my sources are creditable. I chose them just because I thought

people would not be able to discredit them. One Source was only about legalizing

marijuana. The other was a government source focusing on the war on drugs. One

paper I used was from the New York Times and focused on comparing today with

the depression. This was used to help me show the reader the connection between

today’s economic troubles and what we went through in the 1930’s.

I am continent with the way I presented my argument but it could always use

improvement. Some things that I wish I could have covered added to my argument

would be the Mexican drug cartel violence being feed by America’s war on drugs.

The president mentioned in a speech that the war on drugs has failed. Also I needed

to find more information on the effects of alcohol on the human body compared to

the effects of marijuana.