legalization of marijuana
One of the biggest obstacles in the way of legalization is the fact that it is illegal in the first place. ... policy making, all have been born and raised with illegal marijuana. That means that most, if not all, preconceived notions of marijuana today are that it, “diminishes the productivity of the drug user, encourages violent and non – violent crime, contributes to moral degradation, damages the public purse” (Miron), etc. ... With those ideals at hand, we take a look at prohibition of marijuana. When you look with some depth into the subject, you find that much of the negative stigmas associated with marijuana are in fact products of prohibition itself. ... What makes this force even stronger is that, in the case of a victimless crime like the purchasing/selling of marijuana, “whenever any two people engage in commercial activity, there are always gains from trade” (Dordrecht). When a transaction involving marijuana is made, both the buyer and sellers are innately better off. ... Prohibition was meant to be the end of voluntary exchanges involving marijuana. ... So, not surprisingly, prohibition of marijuana has done very little, if anything, to cease the supply and demand of marijuana. ... Even after the almost one million arrests made annually from marijuana, there is a score of more users for each of the former, showing that prohibition has left demand virtually undeterred. ... There are people whose job it is to keep marijuana out of the U. ... , it is illegal to grow marijuana in the U. ... , and the costs of manufacturing, transporting and distributing marijuana are increased because it all must be done in secret. ... You can’t do something public like advertising when dealing with marijuana, and “violent turf battles are one possible substitute” (Miron). ... Legalization would quell these crimes and reduce profitability, which, “will be to greatly decrease the incentive for ‘pushing’…no longer will it pay for addicts to go to school yards, offering free samples, in an attempt to ‘hook’ children into a life of addiction” (Dordrecht). ... One of the main reasons for the Dutch marijuana policy was to “weaken the link between the soft and hard drug markets” (Maccoun). The lack of regulations in the black market greatly increases the probability of an individual being offered other drugs when they purchase marijuana. In fact, in a survey of marijuana users, “55% of respondents reported that they could buy other illicit drugs where they bought cannabis…In Amsterdam, where cannabis sales are regulated and rarely attract criminal sanctions, only 17% could get other illicit drugs” (Wodak).