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Legalize Marijuana

Nick Locker
English 101
December 2, 2003

Legalize Marijuana

After 30 years of marijuana use being subject to such harsh penalties and unreasonable consequences, the world has not yet to agree on the truth about marijuana. I feel that it is a very controversial issue in this day and age with very strong and supportive arguments on both sides of this issue. The issue has caused a lot of political feuds, and it also has increased conflicts between many state governments and the federal governments. I feel marijuana is here to stay, and it is about time the government learns that also. It is one of America's largest imports, it is extremely valuable (for example, an ounce of marijuana is worth more than an ounce of gold), but of course, it is highly illegal. In this paper, I will try to teach you why marijuana should be legal. My first reason is that I feel that the punishment of just having possession of marijuana is way too strict and feel it should be lowered. My second point is that some people think that marijuana is extremely harmful but it is not that harmful. Finally, Marijuana has important benefits that are they helpful.
In researching this topic, I was able to find the statistics and information to support my argument through NORML (National Organization for Reforming Marijuana Laws). NORML is an organization based in Washington D.C. that works to protect the rights of people who use marijuana for medicinal purposes. I found that more than 700,000 Americans were arrested just for possession of marijuana last year, far more than the total number of arrests for all violent crimes combined. In the last 10 years, there have been more than 5 million arrests for possession of marijuana. These laws are absurd, irrational and also out of date. I feel that these laws are putting the innocent people in jail beds rather than the true criminals. The current laws are affecting those who do not use marijuana. As NORML says, it costs ten billion dollars each...