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Why Marijuana Should be Legalized

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Mollie Farragher
Mrs. Nunes
Online English 12
16 January 2015
Why Marijuana should be legalized Multiple studies have found that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco yet somehow is still considered a schedule 1 drug along with other more extreme drugs such as heroin. Marijuana is the leaves and shredded flowers of hemp plant called Cannabis sativa which is usually a green or gray mixture. Marijuana can be not only smoked in the form a joint, blunt, bowl, bong, etc but can also be eaten. Uses of marijuana can be medically or recreationally and the use of it can be dated back to thousands of years ago in Asia when its effect was discovered for medical and spiritual purposes. “The main mind-altering (psychoactive) ingredient …show more content…

One area benefited from the legalization and its tax revenue is schools and education. Colorado school districts were actually one of the first to see some profits from the new state funds. In May of 2014 a funding project in Colorado known as BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) received more than $1.1 million, all from marijuana taxes. Not only can money be gained through tax revenue if it was legalized but money that was previously spent because of marijuana prohibition can now be saved. Every year our country spends $68 billion on prisoners with one-third of them being imprisoned for nonviolent drug crimes (half of these being marijuana-related charges). Therefore, legalizing marijuana would save $11.3 billion because it wouldn’t be spent on prisons. That money being spent on prisons is your tax dollars! Not only does keeping those in prison with marijuana-related charges cost a lot but so does time and money of our police enforcement when they have to charge someone simply having a joint in their home or with friends. Imagine how much police officers could focus on other crimes if they didn’t have to worry about marijuana charges. Not only does the legalization have many medical benefits and tax revenue but also benefits the society as whole by providing job opportunity and a decrease in unemployment and crime. Many have always believed that with the legalization of marijuana would come with higher crime rate but since Colorado

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