Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Laws and policies in the United States that are theoretically intending to protect the social order are causing chaos and disorder in Mexico, and for some reason the U.S. government thinks dead Mexicans are not a big problem. To have no soul or compassion for the victims of this prohibition is simply evil.
The worst part is that the entire prohibition against marijuana is not even working. Anybody can get marijuana if they want. Studies have shown that teenagers find it easier to obtain marijuana than alcohol (Armentano, 2009). The plant's usage for recreational, religious and medical uses has become mainstream in music and movies, and the majority of Americans are if favor of legalizing it (Hartman, 2012). Even members of law enforcement see that the demand and supply of marijuana are unchanged as the result of its illegal status (LEAP, 2012).
Simply put, there is no intelligent case that can possibly be made to continue the ridiculous prohibition against marijuana. The prohibition policies came about as the result of some misguided moral crusade, but never made sense even then. We are smarter now. We know that these policies do not work. All they do is the take money out of the hands of government and out of the hands of entrepreneurs and puts the money into the hands of criminals. These laws bloat our prison system with people who did nothing more than grow and sell a plant, or even just possess that plant.
For all the costs associated with law enforcement and prisons, the prohibition is also costing the American government billions of dollars in potential tax revenue...
The people in Congress are arguing over cutting things like medical benefits because they have a budget problem, and they are leaving billions of dollars of revenue in the hands of criminal by failing to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana. This is fiscal insanity and a great disservice to taxpayers who must pay the cost of this absurd policy.
Worse yet, there never was a good case for the prohibition against marijuana. There is no religious rationale. Though many wanna-be moralists have cloaked their values in religion the Bible -- the word of God -- does not call for the prohibition of marijuana. If we understand America as a land where religion and state do not mix, then we must look to the country's philosophical leaders for guidance. America is a land where human beings can enjoy unprecedented freedom in the world. As long as we do not do harm to others, we should be able to avail of ourselves of that freedom. The evidence shows there is no harm caused by marijuana, but there is cause done by its prohibition. Clearly, this prohibition is un-American. It is a bad policy, driven by bad ideology that is entirely unsupported. It leads to the appalling empowerment of criminal gangs, and the needless deaths of people in Mexico, putting blood in the hands of the American government. And none of this has any effect, nor is it supported by the majority of Americans. It is high time to end the prohibition on marijuana.
Works Cited:
Armentano, P. (2009). Study says it's easier for teens to buy marijuana than beer. NORML. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://blog.norml.org/2009/08/28/study-says-its-easier-for-teens-to-buy-marijuana-than-beer/
Gordon, D. (2012). The war on drugs is a war on freedom. Lew Rockwell.com
Hartman, R. (2012). Number of Americans who support legal marijuana. Yahoo! News. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/number-americans-support-marijuana-legalization-reaches-high-183326193.html
LEAP. (2012). Why legalize drugs? Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://www.leap.cc/about/why-legalize-drugs/
Schabner, D. (2012). Religious groups call drug war immoral. ABC News. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://abcnews.go.com/U.S./story?id=91004&page=1
Smith, a. (2012) Marijuana legalization passes in Colorado, Washington. CNN Money. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/07/news/economy/marijuana-legalization-washington-colorado/index.html
Works Cited:
Armentano, P. (2009). Study says it's easier for teens to buy marijuana than beer. NORML. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://blog.norml.org/2009/08/28/study-says-its-easier-for-teens-to-buy-marijuana-than-beer/
Gordon, D. (2012). The war on drugs is a war on freedom. Lew Rockwell.com
Hartman, R. (2012). Number of Americans who support legal marijuana. Yahoo! News. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/number-americans-support-marijuana-legalization-reaches-high-183326193.html
LEAP. (2012). Why legalize drugs? Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://www.leap.cc/about/why-legalize-drugs/
Schabner, D. (2012). Religious groups call drug war immoral. ABC News. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://abcnews.go.com/U.S./story?id=91004&page=1
Smith, a. (2012) Marijuana legalization passes in Colorado, Washington. CNN Money. Retrieved November 29, 2012 from http://money.cnn.com/2012/11/07/news/economy/marijuana-legalization-washington-colorado/index.html
Marijuana Medical Marijuana: The Interplay between State and Federal Law History of Criminalization The Current War on Drugs Political Issues The legal status of medical marijuana in the United States is something of a paradox. On one hand, federal government has placed a ban on the drug with no exceptions. On the other hand, over one-third of the states have that legalizes the cultivation, distribution, and consumption of the drug for medical purposes. As such, the
The process is even unlikely to stop if dealers are arrested, given that clients remain and support the market. The government however is not probable to change its convictions concerning marijuana in the near future, most probably because marijuana continues to be linked to crime and more dangerous drugs. Weisheit, Ralph a. Domestic Marijuana a Neglected Industry (New York: Greenwood Press, 1992) The masses continue to absurdly blame marijuana, even though
Legalization of Marijuana ease Patient Suffering? Patients with illnesses that cause significant suffering, such as cancer, AIDs and others often find themselves in a dilemma. The dilemma is whether to give up and die, or accept treatment that will make one wish death would come. The treatments for some of the illnesses can make a patient feel more sick than the illness itself does. Chemo and other treatments are universally
Legalize Marijuana Now! Today, the United States enjoys the dubious distinction of incarcerating more of its citizens than any other industrialized nation on earth. Perhaps even more troubling still, the majority of these citizens have been imprisoned for nonviolent crimes involving drugs, with marijuana being one of the most prominently drugs. Furthermore, these issues have assumed new importance and relevance in recent years. As the country continues to struggle to recover
'All you need is love,' sang The Beatles. But they sang against a backdrop of militant demonstrations, the hazing of soldiers, environmental 'monkey-wrenching,' self-destructive drug trips, and a knifing death at the Altamont Rock Festival in 1969. Apart from the Weatherman faction of Students for a Democratic Society, which took Charles Manson as its hero, most people who identified with the 1960s counterculture deplored violence as much as they
An estimated 275 "metric tons" of cocaine (a metric ton is 90% of a full ton, which is 2,240 pounds) arrive in Mexico each year, ready for transport into the U.S. -- and of those 275 metric tons the authorities average seizing about 36 metric tons. Doing the math quickly that indicates that about 239 metric tons of cocaine arrive in the U.S. annually, according to the GAO figures. As