Legalizing marijuana - Essay Example

Legalizing Marijuana Several countries throughout the world are working to decriminalize or legalize less harmful drugs such as marijuana, currently classified as a Class C drug, as a means of addressing the growing problem of the war on drugs. Rather than the elimination of undesirable drugs as was anticipated, the war on drugs has instead served to heighten violence, contribute to the development of organised crime, fill the prison system past capacity, consume large amounts of capital and has still had very little effect on the availability of these drugs or the numbers of individuals who use them.

A report put out by the Drug Reform Coordination Network in 2005 indicated that a group of at least 500 economists are pushing for legislation reform as a means of saving billions of dollars through a tax and regulation policy as opposed to the current elimination policy. In this report, a study conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Miron is cited as claiming legalized marijuana would provide significant savings in enforcement costs at both the federal and state levels and would generate significant income in the form of taxes.

Together, it is suggested there would be a net savings of approximately $14 billion a year. Rather than proposing a specific course of action, these economists were instead calling for a national debate to be held to discuss legalization. “The fact that marijuana prohibition has these budgetary impacts does not by itself mean prohibition is a bad policy. Existing evidence, however, suggests prohibition has minimal benefits and may itself cause substantial harm” (DRCNet Foundation, 2005).

It has been suggested that by legalizing drugs, property and many violent crimes would vastly decline. The resulting tax revenues from such measures would supply law enforcement with more resources resulting in a further reduction of crime and could also be used to fund drug prevention programs in the same way that alcohol and tobacco taxes presently do (Transform, 2005).America’s war against recreational drugs is an example of good intentions gone terribly wrong. While this country squanders billion dollars annually on the efforts to stop illegal drugs, trafficking and use continue.

It has been said that trying to stop drugs is like trying to stop the rain. Over half of the prisoners in jail are there for drug ‘crimes.’ This causes overcrowding which results in the early release of dangerous, violent criminals. This creates more of a public safety problem than does drug use. It is illogical from a societal view and inhumane to individuals who are marked as a criminal for life for activity that causes no harm to others (King & Mauer, 2005)This complete lack of any kind of tolerance for the casual marijuana user and its effects on funding, relations with the populace and inability to accomplish its objective in the United States can be contrasted with the more relaxed legal structure adopted in other countries such as England and Holland.

While marijuana remains illegal in the UK, it is no longer mandatory that casual users of the drug must be arrested when caught. Instead, arrest can be detained until exacerbating circumstances arise, such as the use of the drug in the presence of minors. This move was made, according to Home Secretary David Blunkett, “to free up police resources to fight hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine” (“Cannibis Laws”, 2002) Legalizing or at least decriminalizing less harmful drugs, such as marijuana, can help to reduce the violence, significantly decrease the numbers of people incarcerated for drug use, allow more individuals to remain a contributing member of society and free up funds and manpower to combat against more harmful substances.

References“Cannibis Laws Eased by Blunkett.” (11 July 2002). BBC News. Retrieved July 17, 2007 from < http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2120116.stm> DRCNet Foundation (Drug Reform Coordination Network). (June 3, 2005). “Marijuana: Milton Friedman and 500 Economists Call for Debate on Prohibition as New Study Suggests Regulation Could Save Billions.” Drug War Chronicle. Washington D.C.: Stop the Drug War.King, Ryan S. & Mauer, Marc. (May 2005). The War on Marijuana: The Transformation of the War on Drugs in the 1990s.

Washington D.C.: The Sentencing Project.Transform. (2005). “About Us: What Does Transform Hope to Achieve.” Bristol: Transform Drug Policy Foundation.