*YET
TO BE REVISED, DON’T JUDGE*
Why don’t you take
a second and imagine a world in which you and everyone else around you was
high, stoned, baked, or however you’d like to describe it. Wouldn’t that be
great? This place which you’ve just imagined isn’t all that far off when you
think about it. For years the United States government has stood firm on its
stance to keep Marijuana illegal, but just last month two states passed into
law the right for a citizen to grow, have on their person, and use Marijuana
for medical AND recreational purposes. As there always has been, the bills were
met with stiff competition, but should they have been? There are hundreds of
reasons why Marijuana should become legal on a national level, perhaps the most
glaring of these reasons is that if legalized it could: 1) improve the economy,
2) significantly lower the violence associated with the drug, and 3) reduce criminal
activity across the country.
Now,
whether you call it “grass”, “weed”, or simply “Mary-Jane” there is no denying
the presence of Marijuana in the United States. Almost no matter where you look
you can find Marijuana or something linked to it. Something with this kind of ubiquitous-ness
has the potential to be a huge money maker. As the situation stands today,
Marijuana is a huge money maker, but not for the people we want it to be. Despite
it being traded for in mass and being quite expensive, none of that shifting
money is useful to the United States. Since it is illegal it can obviously not
be taxed, federally or by the states. However, if legalized Marijuana could be
taxed by both parties, creating massive profits for the government. And as we
all know, the government can use all the help it can get when it comes to
money. So at this point the government must ask, why not legalize Marijuana? It
is a widely popular product on which a high tax can easily be justified.
Marijuana is a definite money maker which has other benefits as well.
Benefits,
for example, like taking the violence out of the drug. One of the scariest
things on this continent is the way in which the drug wars of Mexico are
bleeding into America. Everyday too many people are murdered in cold blood
because of a disagreement over Marijuana. Whether it be one drug cartel raiding
another in a territory war, or a simple apartment complex drug deal gone wrong,
any number of dead is that number too many. Most of this violence stems from the
search for supply and demand of Marijuana. But one thing I have noticed in my
time on Earth is that convenience and grocery stores do not raid and attack
each other with AK-47s and the intent to kill. If Marijuana were legal then
there would be no reason to wage war over the supply since it would no longer
be a risk to grow the plant. The demand, however, would just fall into place.
If you shop at Kroger then you would buy your Marijuana from Kroger and the
same with any other grocery. With both of these issues resolved then there
would be nothing left to fight over, nothing left…. to MURDER over.
As a result of the
decrease in violence, criminal activity would decrease, not to mention nobody
would ever get arrested for selling, smoking, or growing Marijuana again. Did
you know that it costs about $47,102 per year to house an inmate in prison? Did
you also know that the median household income in the United States is $46,326?
Housing an inmate is no fee to look over, especially considering it is a higher
total the average amount of income your basic household has per year. As we
already discussed, the government’s financials are in a bad way and it certainly
seems to me that a huge drop in the number of $47,102 checks that it has to
write would be a step in the right direction. In case you still aren’t
convinced, I’m sure you’d be interested to hear that someone is arrested for a
Marijuana related crime once every 42 seconds. 42 SECONDS!!!!! That means that since I began speaking there have
been 4 arrests which stemmed from Marijuana! There’s another $200,000 down the
tubes. $200,000 which I know that we all would love to see the government use
wisely, instead of on an inmate. All of these figures tie back into how
legalizing Marijuana could help the economy. Because if keeping kids out of
jail isn’t enough incentive then the money surely should be.
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