A few more brief
arguments for the legalization of
marijuana:
1, In America right now, marijuana distribution and usage is one of the most often committed crimes. Huge amounts of funding go anti-marijuana law enforcement. From a strictly financial standpoint, marijuana should be made legal because the U.S. government would save large amounts of money in law enforcement. This cash could then be spent on more dangerous drugs.
2, If marijuana were legal, a tax could be placed on it. The market for marijuana is gigantic. Thus the United States government could collect even more money. This money could also be spent on more serious drugs. You might argue that marijuana taxation is an unachievable aspiration because, if marijuana were legal, those who wanted it could grow it themselves. I would argue that people as a whole would be far to lazy to grow anything for themselves; the human race doesn't minde spending outrageous amounts of money for services and products they could produce themselves for free. A perfect example of this is the restaurant buisness. Food is 200% to 900% less expensive if you cook it yourself, and yet people still go out to dinner and lunch.
3, If alcohol is legal, then marijuana should be legal for the following reason: People under the influence of alchohol can have a tendency to commit domestic abuse. People under the influence of marijuana have no violent tendencies.
4, If cigarettes are legal, then marijuana should be legal because: a) Cigarettes are chemicaly addictive. Marijuana is not. b) Some people smoke up to fourty cigarettes daily often causing terrible damage to their lungs. While smoking marijuana can cause damage to the lungs, nobody ever smokes fourty joints a day. Thus there are usually fewer lung problems associated with smoking weed.
5, If cigarettes and alcohol are legal, marijuana should be legal because hundreds of thousands of people die each year solely from smoking cigarettes and drinking alchohol. Today, the total number of people who have died solely from smoking weed is a whopping 0.
6, Right now, marijuana is considered the number one "gateway drug". Among those 21 and over, alcohol is not considered a gateway to other more harmful drugs, because the most harmful other drugs (other than inhalants) are illegal; and drinking, for adults, is not. Thus if marijuana were made legal, it would cease to be a gateway into more harmful illegal substances.