Nicholas Kristof from the New York Times writes a great op-ed on the need to legalize pot. This is an issue that is getting the most notice at the state level with California being the leader because their vote coming up soon on whether or not to make it more legal. Kristof lists some great evidence for legalizing pot with stats like California spending more on incarceration than schooling and the 18 billion dollars saved in taxes from legalizing. Also, minorities are disproportionally arrested for having pot. Other countries like Portugal who have legalized all drugs have not had the problems like exorbitant drug use as predicted. Legalize it!
Posted by: Mark Brady
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/28/opinion/28kristof.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB
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I think that legalizing marijuana would be a huge step for the United States in many different ways. It would obviously generate billions of dollars in taxes for the government. Also a study in Amsterdam surveyed a group of people around the age of 28 and found out that only 16% of them ever smoked marijuana. This is due because when the drug is widely accessible the drug loses much of its appeal. Also in Amsterdam it is still illegal to have large quantities and to have large cultivation operations. This is because since it is legal, they want the users to buy it from the shops, not drug dealers on the corners. The United States could use this same logic in their legalization laws.
ReplyDeleteMatt Rister
Legalizing marijuana would be a huge step for America, possibly a step that we can not yet handle. Accepting the use of marijuana will inevitably decrease the values of America and the children in school wil be taught he wrong things. By California legalizing marijuana, they are accpeting more public drug use, mre drug trafficing and more distibution. Also, this would not be fair to the inmates of Claifornia who have recently been arrested for drugs. This would cause an uproar in the local community and the U.S. because it has been on the public agenda for so long.
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