Benefits of Marijuana Legalization

Benefits of Marijuana Legalization

Marijuana legalization is a commonly debated topic in our nation. Restrictions on the possession and use of marijuana vary by state. Marijuana use is commonly thought of being in the same grouping as tobacco and alcohol, which are both legal in the United States. Evidence from Marijuana Policy Project shows that states are beginning to reduce the restrictions and fines on possession, such as Massachusetts which reduced the punishment for possession from jail time to a one hundred dollar fine (www.mpp.org/states/massachusetts/). Marijuana legalization should be granted based on multiple advantages it would have: for medicinal use, to save government money from the judicial process associated with marijuana arrests, and increased government revenue from taxes and production.

According to statistics provided by Medicinal Marijuana Procon, sixteen states allow the use of medicinal marijuana. Among these states, the allowed possession limit varies, as does the fine for being caught possessing more than the allowed amount. Also, goes on to discuss how marijuana's effects on the body can help reduce the effects of symptoms from various diseases. For example, marijuana can be used to counter-act symptoms from AIDS and HIV, including appetite loss, nausea, and migraines. This is useful and beneficial to those patients and should be legalized to unlock other possible medical advances. In more applicable cases, doctors can suggest marijuana to patients suffering from insomnia; it will help the patients feel tired and fall asleep. So far, sixteen states allow medicinal marijuana and support marijuana being a drug that can be available to people to use medicinally. With understanding that marijuana has medicinal benefits laws and regulations concerning use must be reanalyzed.

Marijuana being illegal is just one more way that jails across the country can fill up. Reports from Alternet state that 750,000 arrests each year are related to marijuana violations (www.alternet.org). This increases the amount of people in jails nationwide and takes up time from courts and police that could be focusing on more pressing issues. It also takes more money from the government to pay for those 750,000 individuals to be in jail. This added government spending is unneeded and eliminating these costs will result in the government having more funds available. Evidence of this can be seen by the reports from norml.org that states, "Taxpayers annually spend between $7.5 billion and $10 billion arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations." This is a big allocation of funds that can be easily reduced or eliminated entirely. So much money is being spent unnecessarily and should be put to better uses. This is proven by statistics from the state