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Marijuana: The Case for Legalization
Weed. ... Perhaps no other drug-related legal debate has lingered so long, or engendered such disparate passions among American lawmakers, as the controversy over the legalization of marijuana.
In the very early days of the anti-marijuana campaign during the 1930s, American citizens were assailed with dire warnings of inevitable addiction, insanity, and even death from even a single puff of the “Devil Weed”. ... Does it really make good sense though, to treat recreational marijuana users as common criminals? In my opinion it does not, and much like the brief prohibition of alcohol in America, the criminalization of marijuana has had far more negative than positive effects.
Consider that roughly five million Americans have been arrested for marijuana related offenses during the 1990s alone; that is an average of 500,000 individuals a year! In 1999 the number of arrests for marijuana charges (700,000), exceeded the total number for all violent crimes combined, including assault, robbery, rape, and murder. America currently incarcerates 60,000 people for marijuana offenses at an annual expense to taxpayers of 1. ... The recreational use and cultivation of marijuana most certainly does not, in my opinion, warrant this massive expenditure of law enforcement resources that have not seemed an effective deterrent after all.
Approximate Word count = 1061
Approximate Pages = 4.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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