Marijuana Legalization Argumentative – College Essay Example

marijuana it would lead to a fall in street price. The US could receive revenue of 20 billion to 120 billion dollars annually from legalized marijuana. By legalizing marijuana in the US and growing our own crop, there would be no need to smuggle marijuana into the US, which would lead to a collapse of drug cartels, which would ultimately create a reduction in violent crimes committed by both drug suppliers and users.

The death toll from the War on Drugs currently stands at 35,000 lives lost (Druglibrary. org). Socially, legalizing marijuana would create a safer nation and economically, the US has the potential to earn billions of dollars in extra revenue that the economy desperately needs. Studies have proven that marijuana is no more harmful to a person’s health than alcohol or tobacco. Every year, tobacco kills roughly 390,000 people, alcohol contributes to 80,000 deaths in America and marijuana contributed to 0; no deaths from marijuana have ever been recorded in US history (Abovetheinfluence. rg). When smoking tobacco, the user inhales tar, nicotine, carbon monoxide, and 200 other known poisons into the lungs (Abovetheinfluence. org). All forms of tobacco, including cigars, pipe tobacco, snuff, and chewing tobacco, contain the addictive drug nicotine, and can also cause cancer. Alcohol alters a person's perceptions, emotions, movement, vision, and hearing. Alcohol plays a role in at least 50 percent of traffic deaths, about half of murders, and about 25 percent of suicides (Abovetheinfluence. org).

Marijuana side effects include delusions, impaired memory, hallucinations and disorientation, which are no different from the side effects of alcohol alone. Marijuana has proven medical benefits. For example, investigators at Columbia University published clinical trial

data in 2007, showing that HIV/AIDS patients who inhaled cannabis four times daily experienced substantial increases in food intake with little evidence of discomfort and no impairment of cognitive performance. They concluded that smoking marijuana has a clear medical benefit in HIV-positive patients (Sisse et al. 5). Marijuana also has proven benefits for patients with brain cancer, breast cancer, glaucoma and Alzheimer’s disease. Before cannabis was used as a narcotic, hemp was a major crop used for numerous textiles. Hemp is the world’s strongest natural fiber; from hemp alone one can produce paper, rope, cotton, and ethanol (Narconon). Marijuana is one of America’s top-selling agricultural products. One California politician estimates that marijuana sales in his state top 14 billion dollars annually.

Putting a tax on legalized marijuana would create a new multi-billion dollar revenue (Mjlegal. org) for the United States. By growing hemp as a commercial crop the US would create new jobs, have new agricultural products, and once again; additional revenue. To keep marijuana illegal is a waste of time and money. The prohibition of alcohol did not prove to be successful, and neither is the prohibition of marijuana. The US spends 7. 7 billion dollars annually on the enforcement of prohibition alone (Bonnie and Whitebread 43).

In 2010 approximately 872,000 arrests were made related to marijuana; 775,000 arrests were just for possession, not for sale or manufacturing. If it costs an average of $78. 95 to keep a person in jail for one day, taxpayers pay the price to fight a never ending battle. No recorded deaths have ever occurred as a result of marijuana use, it is not physically addictive like alcohol or tobacco,

and most doctors will agree it is safer to use than those substances. The end of the War on Drugs depends on the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana being illegal has no validity at all.

Today’s society will benefit socially and economically due to all the positive aspects of marijuana so it should be legalized in the United States. Citations Annals of Internal Medicine. Philadelphia, Penn. American College of Physicians, 2006. Print. Bonnie, Richard J. , and Charles H. Whitebread. The Marijuana Conviction: a History of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States. New York: Lindesmith Center, 1999. Print. DrugScience. org. "The Supply of Marijuana to the United States. " Marijuana Research: Science, Law, Medical Marijuana, Rescheduling Petition. Web. 0 Oct. 2011. Druglibrary. org. "How Many People Are Actually Killed by Drugs? " DRCNet Online Library of Drug Policy. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. "Marijuana History. " Narconon | Drug Rehabilitation | Drug Education. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. Marijuana Legalization Organization. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www. mjlegal. org>. Sisse R. , Hassan Aladdin, Henrik Ullum, Jan Gerstoft, Peter Skinhaaj, and Bente K. Pedersen. "Immune Function and Phenotype Before and After Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy. " Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes 21. 5 (2006): 376. Print.