Pro Legalization of Marijuana

             In the early 1900's Americans realized that alcohol and other types of drugs popular at the time were being abused and thought it may be a good idea to criminalize their use to stop the problems that their use and abuses caused. Legislation was introduced and made into laws, outlawing alcoholic beverages on January 29th, 1920, Marijuana in 1937, cocaine, and other mind altering drugs. It took our government 13 years to admit that these laws were a total failure and reversed most of them. I think it is time to change the remaining failing prohibition laws and let the tax payers decide for themselves what to consume. I believe in the theory of legalizing freedom. I don't believe in the government protecting me from myself.
             For some unknown reason they decided to keep nicotine legal in the forms of cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco, chewing tobacco, and snuff tobacco. Our government decided that they could create new taxes on these drugs since they may not have been aware of their dangers and habit forming tendencies. These new taxes could help pay for all the new federal government jobs that were created. Caffeine the active drug found in coffee and soft drinks was also ignored. Our government opened new federal branches of governments called The Federal Prohibition Agents and later the ATF, the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Bureau.
             Supply and demand have always controlled these drugs. Demand was high and the tax paying citizens were furious that a few decided for the rest that they could no longer have the freedom to consume these mind altering drugs. Alcohol was already being produced in stills in back yards around the country and occasionally someone got sick or even died from bad alcohol. Marijuana and cocaine were mostly used by either the rich or the minorities whereas alcohol was by far the drug of choice at the time.
            
             It didn't take long before ...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Pro Legalization of Marijuana. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 11:21, March 28, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/95637.html