Should Marijuana Be Legalized - 1349 Words

The legalization of marijuana has been a debate that has been going on for the past decade. Many Americans (about 80 percent surveyed) do believe in the legalization while others disagree. With the correct facts in place, it is easy to prove that the legalization of marijuana is a huge benefit to the American people and those who disagree are disagreeing for the wrong reasons. One reason it should be legalized is marijuana can be used for medical purposes, others say it can help lower the debt in America by taxing marijuana. Many of these arguments favoring marijuana are outlined in this paper. In Issue 17: Should Marijuana Be Legalized defended by Ethan A. Nadelmann, he shows the many benefits of legalizing marijuana. One being, how†¦show more content†¦All of this money can be saved if we were to legalize marijuana. â€Å"In Jon Gettman’s 2007 study â€Å"Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws† he found that the U.S. marijuana industry is a $113 billio n annual business that costs taxpayers $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues. Gettman, who has a Ph.D. in public policy from George Mason University, suggests that $10.7 billion could be saved each year from the country’s $193 billion in annual criminal justice expenditures if marijuana arrests – 5.54 percent of all criminal apprehensions – were stopped.† (Kurlick, 2015) The government also spends billions of dollars on advertisements and anti-drug ads a year to show the dangers of marijuana use. They say that is addictive and it is also used as a gateway drug, when there is no proof of that. In 1988, Francis Young, a law judge concluded that â€Å"marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.† It can be addictive but only in extreme cases. In fact, marijuana is the least addictive and damaging drug out there, even less addictive than cigarettes and that is legal all throughout America. With lung can cer being a concern with most Americans who smoke or are around second-hand smoke. Unlike cigarettes, lung cancer involving marijuana is very rare. Did you know marijuana smokers smoke only a fraction of what cigarette users’ smoke? Marijuana can even improve lung capacity unlike cigarettes which cause lung cancer and other medical