Barnard 1 Emily Barnard Professor Brown English Composition 1 12 December 2011 Legalizing Marijuana: Help or Hindrance?

There is no denying that there are problems with the marijuana laws currently in place in the United States. Left and right, there are people using marijuana with blatant disregard to the fact that it is, in fact, prohibited. The black market for marijuana is surging out of control. As a result of this, drug-related street crimes have become more prevalent, which, in turn, has increased the number of offenders in prison for those crimes. This is very costly to the United States government. Also, there are personal dangers involved with buying drugs on the black market. By legalizing marijuana, the government could help solve the problems caused by the laws that are currently in place. Several effects of marijuana prohibition have to do with the economy; improving our economic state would be a major benefit of marijuana legalization. First of all, illegal sales of marijuana are booming. According to an article on Cedrouva.org, people often pay over eight dollars a gram for the drug, spending approximately nine billion dollars each year (Harrison)! Most of these costs are solely due to dealer inflation. Drugs are often purchased and resold multiple times, their prices increasing with each sale. Dealers sell their product for hundreds of times the production costs, making huge personal profits with each sale. This money then leaves the economic system and ends up instead in the dealers pockets. Having less money circulating in the economy places strain on the system. In this way, illegal sales of marijuana are directly contributing to the economic deficit in which our country is currently finding itself. If marijuana were made legal, the government could tax it highly, which would raise billions of dollars in revenue that could used to reduce other taxes, pay international debts, or improve our education or health care systems for future generations. Only the drug users would be forced to pay the extra taxes, but everyone in the country could reap the benefits. The deficit is a huge problem; another major problem that has arisen because marijuana is illegal is the increase in the number of drug-related street crimes. Since marijuana is so expensive, drug users often dont have the means to pay for it. A large number of drug buyers come from low-income families, which only enforces that inability to afford the drugs they use. Also, an article on WebMD points out that although marijuana is not considered a physically addictive drug, it is psychologically addictive and often causes the same symptoms (Marijuana Use). Users rational thought is sometimes impaired by the intense need to fulfill their drug addictions. This leads to increased levels of violent crimes such as robbery, assault, even murder.

Barnard 2 Legalizing marijuana would allow the government to control the market, which would decrease the drug-related crime rates. It would also completely eradicate the number of marijuana-related crimes, such as trafficking and possession. Today, almost sixty thousand people are incarcerated for marijuana-related offenses at a time. The combined number of arrests for the most violent crimes (murder, manslaughter, rape, robbery) still does not exceed the number of people incarcerated for disobeying marijuana laws. At an expense of over twenty thousand dollars each per year, the yearly cost (according to the article Marijuana Arrest and Incarceration in the United States) of incarcerating marijuana law offenders is over 1.2 billion dollars (Thomas)! This is paid for with tax dollars that could be put to better use: education and health care improvement, international debts, technological or scientific advancements, and numerous other things that would benefit the entire country. The legalization of marijuana would eliminate these high costs, and allow the courts to focus on more serious crimes, crimes that affect people besides the perpetrators. Incarcerating such an enormous number of people for marijuana is irrational. How can the government make laws that restrict personal freedoms? People are allowed to choose whether or not they smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol, things that are both very harmful. An article called Addictive Properties of Popular Drugs showed that alcohol is three times more addictive than marijuana, and causes withdrawal symptoms that are six times as severe as the ones caused by marijuana (Henningfield). If people can choose to harm their body with alcohol, why is the government restricting their marijuana use? The government should not be interfering with moral values because there is no common opinion as to what the moral implications of marijuana use are. However, to allow for proper decisions to be made by the people, they have to know what they are purchasing. Today, it is very common to see marijuana laced with other drugs. When marijuana is laced, it is usually mixed with phencyclidine, or PCP. Often, the dealers will advertise that their product is enhanced, but sometimes the drugs are laced covertly, which can be very dangerous. Although marijuana is not physically addictive on its own, it can become so when laced. If users do not know that the marijuana they bought was laced, they could end up addicted to a drug they didnt even know they were using! Legalizing marijuana would require the Food and Drug Administration to create standards for the drug. This would prohibit the lacing of marijuana with other, more dangerous drugs, and allow people to make better-informed decisions when choosing whether or not to use marijuana. There are many reasons why our current drug laws are not working properly. Some of these are the costs of enforcement and imprisonment, the moral conflicts, and the lack of regulations as to what the drugs that are purchased contain. Legalizing marijuana would help to solve many of these problems, and in doing so, strengthen the governments approach to the fight against more serious illegal drugs.

Barnard 3 Works Cited Harrison, Lana D., Michael Backenheimer and James A. Inciardi. "Marijuana Supply, Sales, and Seizures." CEDRO Centrum Voor Drugsonderzoek. Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http:// www.cedro-uva.org/lib/harrison.cannabis.04.html>. Henningfield, Jack E. "Addictive Properties of Popular Drugs." Drug War Facts. 2 Aug. 1994. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. <http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/28>. "NIDA InfoFacts: Marijuana. National Institute of Drug Abuse, Nov. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <http://www.drugabuse.gov/infofacts/Marijuana.html>. "Marijuana Use and Its Effects." WebMD - Better Information. Better Health. Web. 13 Dec. 2011. <http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/marijuana-use-and-its-effects>. Messerli, Joe. "Should Marijuana Be Legalized under Any Circumstances?" BalancedPolitics.org. 6 Aug. 2011. Web. 14 Dec. 2011. <http:// www.balancedpolitics.org/marijuana_legalization.htm>. Thomas, Chuck. Marijuana Arrest and Incarceration in the United States. Ron Mullins For United States Senate (D). Web. 11 Dec. 2011. <http://ronmull.tripod.com/ marijuana.html>.