Legalization of Marijuana

             The legalization of marijuana would greatly reduce the amount of non violent criminals in prisons and jails. Which would then help to reduce the overcrowding of them which seems to be such a large problem in today's society? For example if marijuana were to be completely legalized and all of the people currently in jail or prison for said offense were to be released this would cut the prison population by 14.7% and save taxpayers about $1.2 billion a year.
             People's opions of marijuana are changing. A recent study shows that attitudes towards marijuana have changed. The amount of people that support its legalization has almost tripled in the past two decades and if you add in the people who think it should be legalized for prescription drug treatment the number almost doubles again. The majority of the people that support its legalization are young, well educated, professionals.
             For decades one of the main reasons law makers say that they need to keep marijuana illegal is because it is a gateway drug which means its use usually leads to the use of other drugs. A new study however suggests that this is not necessarily true. The study shows that teens that are likely to experiment with harder drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and hallucinogens would do so whether or not they use marijuana first. "Approximately 70 million Americans have tried marijuana, and nearly nine in ten never go on to use other drugs according to a national survey. The reason that marijuana is normally the first drug used is because it is the first drug that kids are exposed to also if it were legalized people wouldn't have to go through drug dealers which would then greatly reduce there exposure to other more dangerous substances.
             Many researchers now believe that marijuana smoke maybe less harmful than tobacco smoke the reason for this is because even though cigarettes are normally filtered and marijuana is not, tobacco smoke...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Legalization of Marijuana. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 04:22, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/3805.html