Legalize Marijuana

Legalize Marijuana

Driven by the Drug War, the U.S. prison population is six to ten times as high as most Western European nations. The United States is a close second only to Russia in its rate of incarceration per 100,000 people. In 2000, more than 734,000 people were arrested in this country for marijuana-related offenses alone. The US war on drugs places great emphasis on arresting people for smoking marijuana. Since 1990, nearly 5.9 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, a greater number than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. In 2000, state and local law arrest for marijuana exceeded the combined number of arrests for violent crimes such as, murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. So I ask my self why is the government spending so much time and money against marijuana? I believe that marijuana should be legalized.

One of the reasons that marijuana should be legal is that it would save our government lots of money. In the United States, all levels of government (federal, state, and local authorities) participate in the "War on Drugs." We currently spend billions of dollars every year to chase peaceful people who happen to like to get high. These people get locked up in prison and the taxpayers have to foot the bill. We have to pay for food, housing, health care, attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses to lock these people up. This is extremely expensive! We could save billions of dollars every year as a nation if we stop wasting money-locking people up for having marijuana. In addition, if marijuana were legal, the government would be able to collect taxes on it, and would have a lot more money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes.

Many people believe that marijuana can be used as medicine to treat certain illnesses. Canada and several states in the U.S. have passed laws in recent years to specifically allow sick people to use marijuana for medicinal purposes. Still, the U.S. federal government considers marijuana a Schedule One substance, which has no medicinal value. Fourteen percent of all blindness is a result from glaucoma, which is a progressive, lost of vision. Cannabis smoking would benefit 90 % of glaucoma patients and is two to three times as effective as any current medicines. Furthermore, cannabis use has no toxic side effects to the liver and kidneys, nor is there any danger of the occasional sudden death syndromes associated with legal pharmaceutical glaucoma drugs. Also lung cancer can be helped by cannabis use. Marijuana smoke effectively dilates the airways of the lungs; the bronchi, and opens them to allow more oxygen into the lungs. It is also the best natural dilator for the airways of the lungs; the bronchial tubes, making cannabis the best overall bronchial dilator for 80 % of the population. These are 2 of the many helpful medical effects of marijuana use.

Some my say that marijuana is a doorway drug to harsher more dangerous drug use. They also would tell you that pot makes you stupid, and crime rates will increase if marijuana becomes legal. One would even say that marijuana is dangerous and causes lung cancer. But cigarettes cause lung cancer and killed more people than marijuana but it is still legal today. No evidence exists that anyone has ever died of a marijuana overdose. It was put in to see if you are paying attention. Animal tests have revealed that extremely