Future Laws Concerning Legalities Of Marijuana example essay topic

Economics of Drug Legalization: Marijuana As we enter into the year 2002 America finds itself at odds with a well-known and highly demonized "enemy". The enemy is not terrorism. It is not Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden. It's an "enemy" that many Americans have dealt with face to face. The so-called enemy is illegal drugs, marijuana in particular.

Marijuana is the most widely used and criminalized drug in the United States today. This highly sought after resource yields a black market price tag that creates a street economy all it's own. This is Marijuana by itself, it and all the other illegal drugs together combine to form the third largest economy in the world. This is because the demand for illegal drugs is so high. There can be benefits to a legalized drug trade that is certain. The following paper will defend that some uses of marijuana will benefit the economy if legalized.

This is based on the premises that all illegal drugs can benefit the economy if legalized and that some illegal drugs include uses of marijuana. This will be presented in the AII-3 valid argument form. In order to present a sound argument the middle, minor, and major terms will be defined so there is no question as to the basis of this argument. Illegal drugs are classified as controlled substances. Controlled substances are any of a category of behavior altering or addictive drugs whose possession and or use are prohibited by law.

A few examples of controlled substances include heroin, cocaine, hallucinogens, and in the case of this argument marijuana. If found by the court of the law to be under the influence or possession of any controlled substance warrants penalization by the state or federal court which may include fines and or prison. In the case of some uses of marijuana, the word some is highly emphasized. Especially when referring to the legalization there of. Legalizing some uses of marijuana includes distribution, possession and use. This does not mean that marijuana would be readily available for any willing participant to distribute, possess, or use.

This means there will be laws and regulations governing the mentioned legalities of marijuana. Distribution would involve federal and state licensed distributors. They may only distribute to consumers of an appropriately mandated age. Laws concerning distribution of marijuana would have to be similar to those of alcohol and tobacco.

Possession laws would also be very similar to those of alcohol and tobacco. Possession of marijuana by those under the mandated age would be penalized under a properly decided law. Similar to consumption of alcohol, consumption of marijuana would be regulated much the same way. Public use would be prohibited except for designated establishments and all other authorized public events and places.

The operation of any motorized vehicle while under the influence of marijuana would also be prohibited by law. Violations of this law would result in punishments similar to those of current laws governing the operation of motorized vehicles while under the influence. Now obviously there would be many other intricate laws governing the legalization of marijuana. The possible laws mentioned above are general stipulations that would likely head categories of any future laws concerning legalities of marijuana. However, they do present a solid basis for future consideration. There are many ways that marijuana would benefit the economy if legalized.

An economy benefits when there is a healthy flow of monies within. This means internal spending by citizens on items of their choice. Citizen spending is what keeps the economy going. The use of citizen's tax money would also be greatly affected. Tax money would be allocated more properly and used in more strategic ways. The taxation of items such as legalized marijuana brings a flow of money into the economy that would otherwise not be there.

This increase of government funds would allocate more money to federal programs that are in financial need. Federal programs include public education, health education, treatment programs, etc. When the public's way of life is improved it shows in the economy. Tax money is spent more efficiently, there are more jobs, less crime and an influx of private spending. Therefore creating a stronger and more efficient economy. The following is a Venn diagram proving the validity of the following AII-3 (Dati si) argument: Illegal drugs are the single largest reason for America's ever expanding prison population.

Currently the United States is the operator the largest and most expensive prison system on the planet. The prison population has reached almost 2 million inmates. 1.4 million of these inmates are in prison for drug related offenses. To keep drug law violators in prison it costs approximately $8.6 billion a year.

On average it costs $64.49 a day, $23.554 a year to keep a single drug violator behind bars. This is by far more expensive then the cost of college. Much of this money is paying for non-violent offenders who are criminalized do to the illegality of drugs. Tax- payer money needs to be allocated in a more productive manner. Some people believe that decrease in crime is the result of new stricter punishment for all who break the law, therefore a reason to keep locking up drug violators. Trends of the past have shown that this is not the case.

When the economy is doing well, crime decreases. This is because people are working, therefore creating capital for themselves and putting their share of money back into the economy. When the economy dips, people are out of work and find alternative means of income such as dealing drugs. Therefore creating a spike in the crime rate.

By legalizing what is illegal, in this case drugs, the crime is actually being taken out of a prospective criminal's hands and being capitalized upon by the government in the form of distribution taxation. The end result would be less crime, therefore reducing the flow of tax money into the penal system and the application of that money into areas of public interest that would bring about a greater amount of good, such as the educational system or drug abuse treatment programs. By doing so the economy would benefit due to the more highly skilled and educated future work force. Also, the increased amount of tax money from the sale of legalized drugs would create a surplus of money that would not otherwise be available.

Since efforts to eliminate drugs from the nation have failed miserably, funds collected from drug legalization could be used to rid people of drugs. Treatment programs are the best way to curb abuse of drugs. It would also cost less then paying for law enforcement efforts to fight the drug war. The RAND Corporation conducted a study that found additional law enforcement efforts cost 15 times as much as treatment to achieve the same reduction in societal costs. Societal costs include the costs of imprisonment, court, etc. Some might argue that by legalizing drugs we would just create more addicts.

The fact of the matter is that a very small percentage of people are addicted to drugs. Instead of paying tax money to throw these people into the slammer we could spend far less money to treat them. At the same time make a large sum of money on taxation of the sale of legalized drugs to the majority of the public who do not have drug abuse problems. As you can see, illegal drugs can have a positive effect on our nations economy if legalized. Legalized drugs would allow current tax money to be spent more economically when incomes to the prison system and the policing of illegal drugs.

This is on top of the fact that illegal drugs would create a surplus of new tax income for the government and the people it serves. On a more focused level of drug legalization for economical benefit the following is a case of how some uses of marijuana would benefit the economy if legalized. Marijuana is the most easily attainable and widely used illegal drug in the United States today. FBI Uniform Crime Reports indicate that there were 695,201 marijuana arrests in 1997. About 87% of these cases were for possession. This shows that as long as we deem marijuana an illegal substance, our police are spending a disproportionate share of law enforcement resources hunting for marijuana.

These resources, as stated earlier could be devoted to fighting property and violent crimes. In this case people might say that the reason property and violent crimes are committed is because criminals are high on marijuana. In rebuttal of this false assumption, it has been shown that the number of inmates under the influence of marijuana alone at the time of their crime was too small to be recorded statistically! However, 21% of state inmates incarcerated for violent crimes were under the influence of alcohol alone (which is legal) at the time their crime was committed. Legalization of marijuana would save the country $6-9 billion in enforcement costs. This illustrates the idea that by keeping marijuana illegal we are spending tax money inefficiently on marijuana crime fighting and the imprisonment of marijuana offenders.

The economy benefits from all who put into it. Although minorities of this country are exactly that, the minority, they still have a huge effect on the economy when it comes to purchasing power. Minority groups are convicted at a much higher rate for marijuana crimes than whites. Since many of America's minorities live in inner cities they are supported by federal benefits. When convicted of marijuana crimes they stand to lose a disproportionate share of these federal benefits. This includes student loans.

This hurts them because help from the state is one of the only ways they can afford higher education. If we deny lower class individuals access to higher education they will be less likely to obtain jobs and make money to have purchasing power. This can mean businesses will sell fewer goods, creating less demand, therefore causing prices to rise. These elements represent an economy that is not benefiting. This is especially significant in today's economy since the minority population is on the rise along and so is their rate of arrest.

Eliminating some marijuana crimes would decrease the amount of minority arrests, thereby keeping them eligible for federal benefits and the ability to have purchasing power. Women are also subject to the damaging effects of marijuana laws. As long as all marijuana remains illegal, society will have to take up the burden of less fortunate women an their children. Between 1985 and 1996 female drug arrests increased by 95%.

More then 2/3 of them for marijuana offenses. Today, about 130,000 women are behind bars in the US because of the mandatory minimum for possession of marijuana. Most of them leave children behind that become a burden on society since that's who has to take care of them. Since mothers with marijuana offenses on their police records have difficulty finding work they will be less likely to be able to provide for their children and be forced to give them up to the state for foster care. This is another expense that the taxpayers will have to pick up. However, it is ironic that these very same women receive healthcare through state Medicaid programs that don't provide drug-treatment services.

Many of these women will not make the transition from living off of taxpayer money in the welfare program to working actual jobs because Medicaid does not cover drug abuse treatment. If some uses of marijuana were legal, one of the many sources of its revenue would go towards the treatment of individuals considered to have an abuse problem. People may say that locking up women and taking their children is the right thing to do considering these women use "drugs". Is this only because marijuana is "illegal" or because it is actually detrimental to a child? In response, a more significant detriment comes when a child is fostered because their Mother was thrown in prison after she lit up a joint. Just because a Mother might smoke a little marijuana once in a while does not mean she doesn't deeply love and care for her child or children.

That is one of the largest misconceptions about parents who use drugs. They may need help but that help will not be found in the prison system. So in this instance, legalizing marijuana would allow mother's to stay with their children, stay off welfare and have a greater opportunity at joining the work force, therefore benefiting the economy in a number of ways. By taking a more in depth look at the revenue some legalized uses of marijuana will create exemplifies its benefit to the economy. In the free market a legalized joint would be worth five to ten cents per joint. In terms of intoxicating potential, a joint is worth roughly $1 or $2 of alcohol.

So the government can impose an excise tax similar to that of alcohol and tobacco. This would bring the price per joint up to this level. According to the 1991 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, some 19.5 million Americans used marijuana at least once a year, of which 5.3 million used at least once a week, and 3.1 million daily. Now assuming that some of the 3.1 million are multiple daily users of 2-3 joints per day, current national consumption can be figured to exceed 12 to 24 million joints per day. Given a $.

50 excise tax and a minimum price of $2 per joint, this works out to about $2.2-6.4 billion per year in tax revenues. On top of this each state may apply sales tax of say, between 4% and 6% and create revenue on top of the excise tax from $200 million to $1.3 billion a year! On top of tax revenue created from legalizing some uses of marijuana there would be numerous spin-off industries. There is the agriculture of hemp.

Hemp is a valuable resource and used to be one of the largest cash crops in America. This industry could bring in another $6-10 billion per year. Other new industries would include coffee houses and paraphernalia stores. Establishments like these would create more jobs and increase industry sales thereby creating more revenue.

Opponents may argue that marijuana legalization will create large health problems. The fact of the matter is that the amount of revenue brought in from marijuana will more then cover the costs of addiction and any other health problems. Opponents may also argue that regulating the sale and distribution of marijuana would be too difficult. Marijuana regulation would be very similar to that of alcohol and tobacco. These have proved to be very strong and worthwhile economic benefactors to the United States. The numbers provided above prove that legalized marijuana would be a very welcomed addition to our economy.

In summary, the preceding exemplified that our "enemy" a. k. a. "illegal drugs" can have beneficial effects to our nations economy. Especially some legalized uses of marijuana. There are many far- reaching economical aspects involved with its legalization as illustrated above. By legalizing some uses of marijuana, the nations economy would greatly benefit, therefore some uses of marijuana should be legalized.