One would assume that with more and more money being spent on the enforcement of drug abuse, with a huge amount of that money being spent on marijuana abuse the statistics for marijuana and drug abuse would be lower. Yet the opposite is true; the statistics are only continuing to get worse for the number of marijuana users among a younger age range as well as for users in general. People assume that marijuana is safer than alcohol and tobacco and that it should be legalized because alcohol and tobacco are legal. Yet people seem to push out the idea "that marijuana is just as lethal as tobacco" and "as for alcohol, while it, unlike marijuana, can cause death when taken in extremely large doses, the same could also be said for such legal substances as aspirin," as well, marijuana like alcohol and tobacco products among adults "18 and 21 years of age, are the psychoactive substances most widely abused by adolescents (Joffee 1)" and are gateway drugs with adverse health effects (Linker 1). One must then question if people are able to make the choice to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes, why are they not allowed to choose whether or not to smoke marijuana, regardless of the adverse health effects? One must also question why would a person want to legalize marijuana considering the adverse health effects and the long term damage caused by marijuana?
             Marijuana is a cash crop that brings in billions of dollars a year illegally. According to "the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) estimates the government's war on pot smokers costs taxpayers $9.2 billion annually (Murdock 1)."One must now question upon seeing this why would the government not legalize marijuana, and then tax it to make a substantial profit off of it and cut the national deficit? The government would not only be making money but they would also save "an average cost of $ 20,000" on each person that is put into jail on marijuana charges (Murdock 1)." The government would ...