Argument paper FOR the legalization of marijuana - Essay Example

The economic feasibility of decriminalizing marijuana has become a much-discussed subject in recent years. The federal government presently spends a lot of capital on law enforcement to combat distributors and producers of drugs. By legalizing drugs this could eradicate much of the profit, bloodshed and corruption of that trade. If legalizing drugs is to have a positive effect on the crime rate, drugs must be made both inexpensive and available. Studies have repetitively suggested that prohibiting marijuana in the U.S. has not shown to be efficient or effective.

According to the Drug Policy Alliance, “U.S. federal, state and local governments have spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to make America ‘drug-free.’ Yet heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other illicit drugs are cheaper, purer and easier to get than ever before. (“England.” 2006) The damage done by the ‘war on drugs’ to underprivileged countries that produce the drugs and poor persons within the wealthy nations who buy the drugs exceeds any benefits achieved by the current bans.

These government’s drug laws have not produced the desired results of reducing drug use, instead a great number of innocent people have had their lives ruined. “Many critics argue that the increased toughness of that policy has done more harm than good. Some go so far as to suggest that drugs should simply be legalized” (Caulkins, et al. 2005). If marijuana were legalized, governments would have the ability to regulate quality and, like alcohol, the ages allowed to purchase and the ability to add safety warnings to help educate users.

People in this country who only use small amounts of marijuana have routinely been arrested and jailed for mere possession; actions that don’t take drugs off the streets or persuade more people to quit using the them. At the same time, imprisoning those who possess marijuana creates a burden on society as tax dollars must be increased to support these people who are no longer free to secure employment outside prison. The domino effect of this circumstance puts more children and their families onto the welfare roles, contributing to their consequential failure and dependence on society.

(“England.” 2006) “In the United States, drug use is illegal and the police hunt down drug users to throw them in prison. Four thousand people died from illegal drugs in the US last year and we now have more than 600,000 people in prison on drug charges.” (Schaffer, 2006) While much literature exists that provides evidence for both sides of this subject, what seems very clear is that the ‘war on drugs’ remains unsuccessful at its principal goal – that of stopping drug use within the nation’s border.

High school students continue to find marijuana extremely easy to come by, numbers regarding the use of marijuana remain stable and there is an increasing trend in the country for reforming the archaic laws. The entire reasoning behind drug war is prohibition, limiting the supply which would in turn limit use. (Males, 2010). The hypothesis holds that by limiting the source so as to make it practically impossible to acquire the demand for these products will inevitably, and somehow magically, disappear.

Prohibition strategies