MARIJUANA

The use of marijuana should be legalized in the state of Pennsylvania.

Legalizing would benefit economic costs. Every year, we spend billions to arrest harmless citizens who are caught with marijuana use. As result, many are arrested which means taxpayers must pay their tax in order to provide food, housing, health care, court costs, etc for the "criminals" charged for marijuana use. That being the case, if we stopped targeting marijuana users and arresting them, it would save the nation billions of dollars on the condition of the legalization of marijuana. Not to mention that with the legalization of marijuana, better quality drug education programs and other important programs can be paid by the taxes collected by the government. With this in mind, given these points, we could have more money to spend on more important issues if marijuana was legalized.

In addition, prohibiting use does no good. Incidentally, during the 1920's, alcohol was prohibited in the hope that it would decrease crime. However, it had a negative effect and crime significantly increased. When alcohol was legal again, crime decreased. Considering this, we are currently undergoing the prohibition of marijuana. In other words, the War on Drugs in a like manner of Prohibition, been created to outlaw potential criminals or to decrease crime, when in fact it has not helped. People are still going to find a way to obtain what they want whether it's legal or not. Our previous approach with Alcohol Prohibition has failed miserably. In brief summary, we are repeating our mistakes. Drug problems should be addressed by education and treatment instead of prohibiting marijuana.

incidentally