The reason I chose the subject of marijuana legalization is almost funny. I saw it on an advertisement when I was online. I first want to say that my topic is one that surprises many people. Even though there are just as many, if not more, reasons to legalize marijuana than not to, if you want to look this subject on the internet, then you will find the following: "Marijuana should be legalized"- 533,000 results. "Marijuana should not be legalized"-8,180,000 results. As you can see, the vast majority of these websites are absolutely against it. However, I believe that marijuana should be legalized with an age limit, and I intend to prove it. Some of the big things I'm going to cover in this paper are the cost of keeping marijuana illegal, the violence that leads from keeping marijuana illegal, why history says keeping marijuana illegal won't work, why the Constitution of The United States says that Marijuana should be legal, and how it's a misconception how dangerous marijuana is.
Taking on the narcotics trade in Helmand
English: Four ounces of low-grade marijuana, usual...
English: Detail of Preamble to Constitution of the...My first subject is money. The cost of keeping marijuana illegal is somewhere in between 10 and 14 billion dollars. Even most of the leading economists say that they would prefer an economy "in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods"(Why Should Marijuana be legal?). The U.S government spends almost 18 billion dollars a year on drug control programs, and if you figure that 20 percent of that is for marijuana, you could save almost 2 billion dollars a year on drug control programs. If you taxed a dollar per joint then you could make almost 4 billion dollars a year right there. So if you add all that together it's 12 billion dollars in keeping it illegal, 18 billion on helping people in jail get...