Adam's+Paper

Taking and Defending a Personal Point of View Since the early 1900s, the United States has had to deal with a major problem, the illegalization of marijuana. Marijuana should not be illegal. It should not be illegal because it is one of the most non-harmful drugs out there. Thousands of people are being arrested for simple possession charges. The Government is spending too much money putting people in jail over marijuana charges. In the early 1900s, Marijuana was illegalized by the inflation of immigration. As immigrants fled into the United States they brought drugs. One of the drugs that were widely used by the immigrants was marijuana. So by illegalizing marijuana they could stop or slow down the rate of immigrants coming into the country. Just about everyone is affected by this issue. The users are affected by this law because everything has to be done illegal. Personal users are arrested and thrown in jail for senseless crimes. These types of “Criminals” are taking up space in jails, and tax payers are paying for people to go to jail who don’t even belong in jail. There have been many attempts to legalize marijuana on a national scale. There are some states that marijuana has been decriminalized, or you only pay a fine. The most recent attempt is Barney Frank, a representative who wants to legalize small amounts of marijuana. With the legalization of marijuana many of our problems would be solved. For instance there are 33,655 inmates in state jails, and 10,785 in federal prisons. This is costing Nine Billion dollars of tax payers’ money. This doesn’t even cover for what we pay to keep this non-violent and non-harmful drug off the street. Some states have already decriminalized marijuana and they are doing just fine, it is about time it gets nationally legalized. I can understand that marijuana is a “gateway drug” and if this is legal then heavier drug usage will occur. This will not happen. If people want to smoke then they will smoke, whether it is legal or not. As I looked over both sides of the matter, I believe that the best solution to this problem would be to legalize marijuana. The first reason why legalizing marijuana would be a benefit is because it would save the country billions of dollars. Another reason is that all the time that is spent on dealing with putting people away for non-violent marijuana crime could be spent on more useful things. The final reason that marijuana should be legalized is that the government could control all of the sales. As I learned more about the topic I came to a conclusion after I learned that this country spends Nine billion dollars of tax payers’ money to help fight the “War” against marijuana. The United States would really benefit from the legalization of marijuana.