Debating the Legalazation of Canabis
Essay by mitchfields7 • January 13, 2013 • Essay • 317 Words (2 Pages) • 1,268 Views
The legalization of marijuana is becoming more and more widespread across the United States, especially for medicinal purposes. Just under half of the states within our country have legalized medical marijuana, and Washington and Colorado have recently legalized it across the board, not just for medicinal use. However, suspicions have already been raised that the Obama Administration may send federal agents into these states and legally override the laws passed by the state prohibiting the use of marijuana once again, despite the many efforts exhausted to get it legalized.
Obama states no drug will be legalized and continues to express that principles of prevention, treatment, recovery, and supply reduction efforts are still being made across the United States. If marijuana became legal, some people fear the amount consumed would jump through the roof and more people would become addicted. As a result, programs are being implemented to stop the use of marijuana. Officials believe that legalizing marijuana will only intensify the criminal justice system and therefore, create unnecessary havoc in our country.
On the other hand, legalizing marijuana will significantly cut out profits made by local drug cartel. Officials believe the Mexican drug cartel may decrease as much as 60% with the recent laws passed by Washington and Colorado. If these two states making it legal eliminates that much business for the Mexican cartel, many drug operations could be completely eliminated if marijuana became legal in America. Legalizing marijuana may have a domino effect. If it were to become legal, a huge number of arrests made annually would be unnecessary, which, in the long run would free up much needed jail space. Taxes would have to be paid on marijuana bought and that could easily turn around the situation of our economy in a very short amount of time.
References
Marijuana Legalization. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/ondcp-fact-
sheets/marijuana-legalization
ProCon.org. (2012). 18 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC. Retrieved from
http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000881
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