Legalizing Marijuana. Not only would the legalization of marijuana make many people of our country happy, but it would also stimulate so many aspects in our economy.

            Not only would the legalization of marijuana make many people of our country happy, but it would also stimulate so many aspects in our economy.  California alone has an annual revenue of 14 billion dollars off of marijuana.  It’s known to be the biggest cash crop in the state.  After adding a 10 percent tax rate on the substance, it would yield roughly around 1.4 billion dollars just in California.  Prisons spend 68 billion per year on correction facilities when one third of those incarcerated are doing time for non-violent drug crimes.  Forty-seven percent of the drug arrests in the U.S are marijuana related as well.  If marijuana was legal we would cut spending on prison systems and cut our crime rate down tremendously.  

        Dr. Robert L. DuPont writes in his article, “Substance Abuse and Mental Health services Administration” that marijuana should not be legalized under any stand point.  He states that many late night driving accidents have occurred while drivers where impaired by the use of marijuana.  Alcohol costs total around $185 billion while federal and states collected an estimated $14.5 billion in tax revenue.  Tobacco use costs roughly over $200 billion but only $25 billion are collected in taxes. These numbers show that the costs of alcohol are more than 12 times the total tax revenue taken up, and that the costs of legal tobacco are about 8 times the tax revenue collected.  If the U.S. were to legalize marijuana, the number of people to use this substance would increase. Today there are around 15.2 million marijuana users while there are 129 million alcohol users and 70.9 million tobacco consumers. While the number of marijuana users isn’t as high as the current numbers for alcohol and tobacco, if marijuana was legalized, the increase in users would be both large and quick.

Dr. Robert L. DuPont does not help himself out in his argument.  Alcohol is highly more dangerous than smoking marijuana.  There is a significant more amount of drinking while driving fatalities then smoking while driving fatalities.  If it was legalized by our government or state there would be a large amount of money saved in many different places.  For example, our prison system wouldn’t have to waste money on incarcerating inmates for marijuana charges.  Also, a good amount of money would be profited by the taxation of this “drug” marijuana.  It’s a simple mind altering effect and should be legalized in America.

Works Cited

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (1999). 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse. (Office of Applied Studies). Rockville, MD. Retrieved March 31, 2010

Klein, Joe. Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense. (2010). Time Magazine.  19 February 2011