Would America Benefit If Marijuana Was Legal?

Would America Benefit if Marijuana was Legal?

In the perspective of America's war on drugs, marijuana is one of the biggest enemies. And since alcohol and tobacco, two life threatening substances, are legal it is a relevant question to ask why marijuana is illegal. The taxpayers of America can partly answer this question when they fill out their tax forms and when they hear the language used against marijuana by the government. The fact that marijuana is illegal is sufficiently caused by the amount of money, jobs, and pride invested in the drug war. In other words, the government cannot turn back now.

In order to demonstrate this cause, the difference between illegal and legal substances (specifically alcohol and marijuana) must be abolished. Alcohol, as we all know, was once illegal. The reason that it was illegal was because the ill effects of alcohol led many people to fight for the prohibition cause. Some of these ill effects are direct and some alter the behavior and motor skills of the drinker, helping them do things they would not usually do. More often than not, the direct effects result from heavy drinking, like "alcoholics tend to have symptoms of depression" (Rittenhouse 142). Just getting drunk can do serious harm and alcohol is a human health threat. "The major cause of brain damage from alcohol is accidental trauma" (142)

Marijuana on the other hand seems a little out of place in its classification as illegal. While short term use has been proven therapeutic for pain relief in cancer and glaucoma patients, daily use has been proven to only have a harmful impact. Long term use can greatly impair "..critical skills related to attention, memory, and learning..."(w1). The study of marijuana's impact on the brain has proven that "...young people (that use) below college age... ... have lower achievement than the non-users"(w2). Recently a heated debate has arisen on the medicinal value of marijuana. Whether there is a definite use for marijuana is unclear, but there is surely no such debate concerning alcohol.

Once again I posture the question why is marijuana illegal if it is not more dangerous than substances that are legal? The American government's investment in the war on drugs spans the spectrum of governmental offices. But the main recipient of funds from the budget is the Drug Enforcement Agency, located in the Department of Justice. The budget does not make distinctions between fighting marijuana and fighting cocaine, heroine, etc. So, I would like to ask you the reader to assume marijuana accounts for five percent of the budget's drug prevention allocations. This is probably much smaller than the actual percentage, but there is no way of knowing for sure. So, keeping the above in mind, the projected 2005 budget allows for 15.997 billion dollars for what it calls "Federal Drug Control Funding" (Budget 332). The abovementioned Drug Enforcement Agency, better known as the DEA, was expected to receive 1.146 billion dollars. Also, 281 million dollars was estimated to be spent on federal prisons for the housing of drug offenders. If marijuana was to be legalized these amounts would be reduced and taxpayers would gain, but the government would lose that very same money.

Besides the money that would be lost, many people would have to find another job. The projected 2005 budget allocated 753 million dollars to "salaries and expenses" for the DEA alone (Budget 468). This is more than half of what the DEA receives from the government, meaning that the funds that the jobs need would take a serious hit from marijuana legalization.

A more vague investment that the government makes in the war on drugs is its pride. The government makes a determined effort to inform the American public that marijuana is bad for the taxpayers. The budget allocated 620 million dollars for what it calls "Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities" (Budget 332). This most probably involves education for the schools and communities on the adverse effects of marijuana. Ex-DEA agent Michael Levine comments that, "As I write this, President