Legalizing marijuana in the United States Would be Beneficial

Introduction

One of the important recent issues for countries like The United States and Canada is whether or not to legalize the use of marijuana. What is marijuana? Marijuana is the female plant of the Cannabis Sativa genus (Bachman,,53). When a marijuana plant is in its flowering stage, some plants will have white lines and pollen. These are the female marijuana plants of the Cannabis Sativa genus from which the recreational drug is grown. The female plant is enriched with a psychoactive chemical called THC or tetrahydrocannabinol that when inhaled, induces a euphoric and sedate effect. Commonly mistaken as a sedative it is actually a hallucinogenic, albeit a very mild one. Although it is mostly known as a recreational drug, it is also becoming recognized as having many viable medicinal uses. Marijuana has many benefits, however since the drug is illegal then people usually forget what most of it uses are. Legalizing marijuana is more of a benefit that a threat because it is a stress reliever for many people, it will decrease the crime rate if the herb is readily available, and most importantly, it will bring new medicinal values.(Becker,396)

Discussion

        Is marijuana really that harmful? It is really the users business to decide this. Some say that marijuana acts as a stress reliever for many, and allows them to relax. Through research and surveys it has been found that marijuana is used to free people from their life problems. People smoke marijuana for many reasons however this is a very popular one, which has been noticed. Along with relieving stress marijuana helps with many realistic situations.(DeSimone,149) Marijuana is known to help many people with sleeping disorders and sore muscles. Stress is all around us in our daily lives and these are two signs of stress which can be relieved by the use of marijuana.

Legalization will be profitable to USA economy in two ways. It will allow for money spent on drug law enforcement to be spent more wisely and it will increase revenue. There have been escalating costs spent on the war against drugs and countless dollars spent on rehabilitation. Every year in the United States, ten billion dollars are spent on enforcing drug laws alone. Drug violators accounted for about forty percent of all criminals in federal prisons. In 1989, a Republican county executive of Mercer County, N.J., estimated that it would costs approximately one billion dollars to build the jail space required to house all the drug users in Trenton alone. All of this money could be spent on things of greater importance. Not only has the drug problem increased, but drug related problems are on the rise. Drug abuse is a killer worldwide. Some are born addicts (crack babies), while others develop addictions later in life.(Heien,567)

Legalizing drugs would also increase USA revenue. During prohibition, alcohol use was still rampant. People were still drinking, only it was illegal. In the US, the 21st amendment annulled prohibition and alcohol taxes were ...