Legalization of Marijuana

Legalizing marijuana may be a funny and touchy subject to some people but it deserves just as much attention. The legalization of marijuana has been a debatable topic lately in the United States but the drug should be legalized. Seven states including California and Oregon are planning on following Washington and Colorado to legalize this drug as of the entire United States should. Most American voters believe that the government should let them. National polls are increasingly showing most Americans supporting legalization on the federal scale. Many skeptics believe that it shouldn’t because it is after all a drug.
Marijuana is technically much healthier for you than alcohol or tobacco. Annually there are around 50,000 people dying each year from alcohol poisoning. On top of that More than 400,000 deaths each year are associated to tobacco usage, either smoking or chewing. Compared to the two, marijuana is nontoxic and cannot cause death by overdose. Compared to other major categories, marijuana has had far less deaths than the next cause. In 2010, the total number of deaths, in the United States, is totaled up to about 2,437,163 and marijuana contributed to none of them. Drug overdose totaled up to 38,329 deaths. Pharmaceutical drug overdose was around 22, 000 and illicit drugs had 17,000 deaths.
Marijuana, or cannabis, the politically correct name, has been an ancient medicine since 2727 B.C. Marijuana could possibly be used for pain relief, involving nerve damage, nausea, and spasticity, glaucoma, and movement disorders. Marijuana is also a powerful appetite stimulant, specifically for patients suffering from HIV, the AIDS wasting syndrome, or dementia.
Legalizing, selling and taxing marijuana could possibly be the nation's largest money making business, by creating jobs and helping out the economy legally. The few police officers and law enforcements could focus on more of protecting the community than making drug busts. Not only the state governments but local ones would make a lot of money from taxing and selling marijuana. The government would save an estimated $13.7 billion with police not arresting people for the now legal drug and the tax cost by legalizing marijuana. People arrested for marijuana related crimes would be released and save prisons $1 billion a year. Including lost tax revenues, a 2007 study found that enforcing the marijuana prohibition costs tax payers $41.8 billion annually, Forbes reports. People who grow medical marijuana on California for legal purposes make a total of $14 billion a year, making it the state's most valuable cash crop. It's estimated that illegal marijuana is a $36 billion industry in the U.S and if we legalize it, all that money could go somewhere useful. Those are just some of the reasons in which marijuana could without a doubt, boost the United States troubled economy.

Many people disagree that marijuana should be legalized because of the fact that it’s actually a drug. Then again, so is alcohol in a way. There should be restrictions on the drug similar to those on alcohol, such as a legal age and driving under the influence. Also people would say that the users would abuse it and not use it for its medical reasons. Another argument is that people would sell it and try to make a profit on it rather than selling it in a refinery. It isn’t the drug that makes people do things like that; it’s the person’s character that determines that. If people are responsible and mature enough to handle it, they should be allowed to.
I strongly agree that marijuana should be legalized for a number of reasons, most importantly for the money that it could bring in. There should however be laws regarding the drug similar to the ones involving alcohol.