Bshs 455 - Take a Stand Paper

Take a Stand Paper

BSHS/455

Take a Stand Paper

The war on drugs in this country has unfairly targeted marijuana users and even though there is a risk of increases in adolescent use due to increased availability, greater social acceptance, and possibly lower prices, legalizing marijuana would benefit the country in many ways (Hopfer, 2014). Whether through increasing accessibility to the treatment for patients in states where medicinal marijuana is currently not legal, or by decreasing the tax burden associated with the current criminalization of marijuana users, marijuana usage in this country needs to be looked at to see what policies can be set in place that will open the door for more states to legalize. This paper will consider the legalization of marijuana. My stance on this issue will be discussed along with whether this stance can be applied universally, and whether my stance differs depending on the substance will be explored. Lastly, a discussion will be provided on who may be affected by the approach I selected, and how I would advocate for that population.

The current drug laws are doing more harm than good. Legalizing marijuana would benefit the country in many ways. For instance legalization would create many jobs in the industry, be a huge hit to the drug cartels, which would all of a sudden be without 75% of their wage, give a tremendous benefit to the administration, which would acquire billions in charges and spare billions more on law requirement (ending Prohibition played a big part in getting the U.S. out of the Great Depression), and above all permit police, courts, and jails to center their assets on hazardous offenders, instead of cannabis clients.

Per the video “The War on Drugs:  Winners and Loser”, “We imprison at rates greater than any other country in the world except perhaps for Russia. We imprison a higher percentage of our black people than South Africa did during apartheid.” (The War on Drugs:  Winners and Losers [Video file], 1999) This is what the war on drugs is bringing about in our country. The law enforcement is arresting for drug charges at an alarming rate but the so-called drug epidemic is not getting better but worse. That is why legalization is so important because it will decriminalize a drug that many use and not only for the purposes of getting high but for most often medical purposes. Per CNN (2009), “Among the expected benefits of legalization are cheaper drug prices, a decrease in drug-related crime, less corruption of governmental officials, and a destruction of the power base of drug lords and criminal syndicates. In addition, the U.S. legal system would be free to use more of its resources to provide treatment to addicts, to prosecute and punish real criminals, and to eliminate the threat to civil liberties contained in current policies. Finally, government-sanctioned sales outlets could provide quality control to see that drug users are not harmed by tainted drugs and could collect badly needed tax revenues. We mentioned earlier that Oakland voters approved the taxation of medical marijuana” (CNN, 2009).