The Economical Benifits of Legalizing Marijuana Essay Example for Free

The Economical Benifits of Legalizing Marijuana Essay The Economical Benefits Of Legalizing Marijuana Marijuana has created a hidden market in the United States which accounts for as much as 10% of the American economy, according to a study. Laws punish marijuana cultivation more strictly than murder in some states, but Americans spend more on illegal drugs than on cigarettes. The American economy has been suffering a downturn, while in the shadow economy of the underground world there are high levels of success, mimicking the prohibition period of alcohol, which fueled the illegal markets in the 20s and 30s. No aspect of farming has grown faster in the US over the past three decades than marijuana, with one-third of the public over the age of 12 having used the drug. It is estimated that marijuana is the nation’s largest cash crop, producing $25 billion in revenue. Keeping marijuana illegal looks expensive and is expensive. Did you know that one important reason it was outlawed was because it could be used to make hemp. Hemp is a plant that is a valuable natural resource which has agricultural and industrial uses. Hemp could of been used to make paper, so no more tree chopping. Paper is made from dead trees so a DuPont chemical must be used, but this chemical is not necessary when it is made from hemp. The DuPont Company put pressure on the politicians to outlaw hemp. Marijuana can also be used to make other products such clothing and rope. We can even make marijuana oil which can be used as a renewable fuel. What a powerful economy we could create through the marijuana industry if only, The United States would legalize it. The various levels of American government have in the past, and will spend in the future, billions of dollars on marijuana enforcement alone. The laws against the drug are strict, as there were 724,000 people arrested for marijuana offences in 2001 and about 50,000 went to prison for possession. Commercial growers can serve sentences far longer than those for murder, but the high risks have had little effect on production or availability. When surveyed, 89% of secondary school students indicated that they could easily obtain the drug. We could save our government tons of money in all levels of federal, state and local areas who participate in the â€Å"War on Drugs†, by not using our tax dollars to support the people we jail for using, growing, and selling marijuana. It is extremely expensive to pay for their food, housing, health care, attorney fees, court costs and other incurred expenses. Instead we could be collecting taxes on its revenues and have more money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes. The billions of dollars that go to waste fighting the war against an inevitable activity is much less detrimental to our society then the war itself. With careful regulation of the drug, it could be beneficial to our society, with minimal risks accompanying the use and more economic advantages. Some such advantages would be creating a workforce. Farm lands would be needed as well as the laborers needed to help grow and distribute the plant. Pharmaceutical companies would then distribute the plant to pharmacies like Rite Aid or Walgreens and these places are going to need an extra helping hand too. The needed expertise of Marijuana would then have its effects on Universities, Community Colleges, and Certificate Programs. They are going to call on the experts to help teach classes for our future pharmacists of tomorrow. This will increase enrollment which helps the local economy as well. Purchasing Marijuana and paying a proposed Marijuana Tax would mean having more money to pend on important problems, if only it were legal. Some of the most expensive weed is grown indoors on the west coast using advanced scientific techniques, but the American heartlands account for the largest volume of it. Some statistics suggest 3 million Americans grow marijuana for their own use or for a freinds, and between 100,000 and 200,000 are belie ved to be doing it for a living. We are also being invaded by Mexican drug cartels that are growing marijuana from Humboldt County to Keokuk, Iowa. and no state, or national forest, is exempt from the invasion. The cartels are so sophisticated and well- funded that they don’t just stop at growing massive amounts of pot outdoors, they have also been setting up indoor grows from coast to coast that produce massive amounts of the popular herb. They achieve this by purchasing houses and putting their Mexican nationals in them, posing as normal families and â€Å"blow-up† all the room with indoor grow systems that yield surprising amounts of the billion dollar drug. The government admits they cannot control or keep up with them. These cartels do not help grow our US economy. They only help the drug lords in Mexico get rich and live like kings and laugh as they use our American land, people and government. To bust one of their numerous grows, at the most means we can expect to jail some poor Mexican nationals to which we will then support with our tax dollars. The future only promises more massive crops and profits going to the cartels, and not in the pocket of the Untied States. Profit will never leave them and they will never leave, if the U. S. does not legalize pot which will make the price plummet and that will take away the cartels profits. The reason they do so well here, is because we have created an atmosphere they can thrive in. We jail some of their workers and then we support them in jail. We get nothing out of the deal, and people here who want to smoke pot will. , but our government doesn’t get the money, the drug dealers do. We need to redirect our focus on marijuana and decriminalize what a majority of Americans want. If we took back our national forests and neighborhoods and stopped the Mexican cartel’s economic invasion of our country, we would be not high on pot as much as we would be higher in economical status. Canada, our neighbor to the north, is slowly but surly moving toward the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana is just months away from being decriminalized in Canada. This would mean the US government has two choices. Spend more money to fight the flood of marijuana that would be coming over the Canada US boarder or take the steps to decriminalize then legalize marijuana so the money saved from the war on drugs could be better used on our economy and not on this useless war on drugs. The medical benifit of marijuana includes good pain killing relief, reduction of pressure on the eyes for glaucoma sufferers, help with nausea in cancer patients from kemo therapy, and it helps restore an appitite in people who have lost weight from AIDS. The White House first declared the war on drugs 35years ago, and three hundred billion dollars up until now we have no victory but worse still, we have economic hardships up and coming fast on the rise. When will it be about time, to stop being so hypocritical because we all know alcohol and tobacco kill lots of people each year, but there is no evidence anyone ever died of a weed overdose. Legalization of marijuana would save law enforcement and the judicial system somewhere around 9 billion dollars a year off marijuana arrests. On harmful tax alone the government would raise between 2 and 6. billion dollars. If marijuana were legalized it would become the new cash crop in the USA,. If we brought in an estimated 2, 200-4,400 tons of marijuana to be grown commercially, the tobacco companies would have a serious competitor. Why should the international illegal drug business make as much as $400 billion in trade, which amounts to 8% of all international trade, while our economy weeps a nd our people pay for and smoke the weed anyway, no matter where it comes from. Let Hemp make the US huge amounts of money and help the environment too, if only.