The Legalization of Marijuana

The Legalization of marijuana has to be one of the most debatable topics in my life time.  I feel that I have heard more arguing about marijuana than debates about abortion and gay marriage combined.  This is a touchy subject for a lot of people and I am not convinced why there is such an issue.  If you are for the legalization of marijuana then you are considered a hippie, stoner or drop out.  If you are against it then you are generally assumed to be over the age of 55 or a super conservative.  Either way the labels that you get in picking a side for this topic isn’t correct and it seems like either side is so stuck on their own values and morals they don’t want to hear the others opinion. Mainly the people against the legalization of marijuana just think the people that for it just want to get high and there are no other reasons in the world other than that to benefit the country or people.  In this paper I’m going to go into detail on the pros and cons of legalization of marijuana and my stand and personal experiences in the substance. 

            Marijuana is one of those topics where if you as ten different people how they feel about the 100% legalization of marijuana you are going to get ten different answers.  I’ll start off with my own personal take on the subject.  I think it should be legalized immediately.  All these statements of “marijuana is a gateway drug” are ridiculous.  If I want to do heroine I will do heroine.  Marijuana isn’t going to make me go out and do heroine.  “One third of prisons in the country are housing non-violent drug offenders.  For instance, you were smoking a joint in your house and got busted and off to jail.  Beds that could be used for I don’t know… murders, rapists, sex offenders, etc.” (Prof. Van Winkler, Keene State College.  Cheshire County jail warden.)  I was graced to be in two of Professor’s criminal justice classes.  He is a part of LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.)  I get just about everything I know from him and myself because rather than going online and hearing some so called expert give me his values I have myself and another person who has been around these things for over twenty years.  I feel that we should legalize marijuana and have the government control and grow it.  It will make it safer and assure people that they are going to get quality marijuana and not some laced stuff that will make you trip for the next three days from Johnny down the street.  “If the government grew it and sold it for roughly $8.60 for half a gram the profit would be $6.90.  it would take about $1.70 to grow.  That is without the tax on it though.  Economists estimate this, over a years’ time, could amount to $55 billion.”  This is an insane number to me and I’m still trying to figure out why we are not doing this yet.  What a good way to get out of a $13 trillion debt if you ask me.  If we have learned anything about things being illegal we need to look at prohibition in the 30’s with alcohol.  It started speak-easy’s and organized crime throughout America.  Today we have the exact same thing with marijuana and other drugs.  If we’ve learned anything from that it’s that it doesn’t work and we should just legalize it and tax that crap out of it.