РефератыИностранный языкMaMarijuana Legalization Essay Research Paper Most Americans

Marijuana Legalization Essay Research Paper Most Americans

Marijuana Legalization Essay, Research Paper


Most Americans do not want to spend scarce


public funds incarcerating nonviolent marijuana


offenders, at a cost of $23,000 per year. Politicians


must reconsider our country’s priorities and attach


more importance to combating violent crime than


targeting marijuana smokers.Marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers at least


$7.5 billion annually. This is an enormous waste of


scarce federal dollars that should be used to target


violent crime.Marijuana prohibition makes no exception for the


medical use of marijuana. The tens of thousands of


seriously ill Americans who presently use marijuana


as a therapeutic agent to alleviate symptoms of


cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, or multiple sclerosis risk


arrest and jail to obtain and use their medication.Between 1978 and 1996, 34 states passed laws


recognizing marijuana’s therapeutic value. Most


recently, voters in two states — Arizona and


California — passed laws allowing for the medical


use of marijuana under a physician’s supervision.


Yet, states are severely limited in their ability to


implement their medical use laws because of the


federal prohibition of marijuana.America tried alcohol prohibition between 1919


and 1931, but discovered that the crime and


violence associated with prohibition was more


damaging than the evil sought to be prohibited. With


tobacco, America has learned over the last decade


that education is the mo

st effective way to


discourage use. Yet, America fails to apply these


lessons to marijuana policy.By stubbornly defining all marijuana smoking as


criminal, including that which involves adults


smoking in the privacy of their own homes, we are


wasting police and prosecutorial resources, clogging


courts, filling costly and scarce jail and prison space,


and needlessly wrecking the lives and careers of


genuinely good citizens.Marijuana legalization offers an important


advantage over decriminalization in that it allows for


legal distribution and taxation of cannabis. In the


absence of taxation, the free market price of legal


marijuana would be extremely low, on the order of


five to ten cents per joint. In terms of intoxicating


potential, a joint is equivalent to at least $1 or $2


worth of alcohol, the price at which cannabis is


currently sold in the Netherlands. The easiest way to


hold the price at this level under legalization would


be by an excise tax on commercial sales. An


examination of the external costs imposed by


cannabis users on the rest of society suggests that a


“harmfulness tax” of $.50 – $1 per joint is


appropriate. It can be estimated that excise taxes in


this range would raise between $2.2 and $6.4 billion


per year. Altogether, legalization would save the


taxpayers around $8 – $16 billion, not counting the


economic benefits of hemp agriculture and other


spinoff industries.

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