Legalizing marijuana Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legalizing marijuana - Essay Example A report put out by the Drug Reform Coordination Network in 2005 indicated that a group of at least 500 economists are pushing for legislation reform as a means of saving billions of dollars through a tax and regulation policy as opposed to the current elimination policy. In this report, a study conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Miron is cited as claiming legalized marijuana would provide significant savings in enforcement costs at both the federal and state levels and would generate significant income in the form of taxes. Together, it is suggested there would be a net savings of approximately $14 billion a year. Rather than proposing a specific course of action, these economists were instead calling for a national debate to be held to discuss legalization. â€Å"The fact that marijuana prohibition has these budgetary impacts does not by itself mean prohibition is a bad policy. Existing evidence, however, suggests prohibition has minimal benefits and may itself cause substantial harm† (DRCNet Foundation, 2005). It has been suggested that by legalizing drugs, property and many violent crimes would vastly decline. The resulting tax revenues from such measures would supply law enforcement with more resources resulting in a further reduction of crime and could also be used to fund drug prevention programs in the same way that alcohol and tobacco taxes presently do (Transform, 2005). America’s war against recreational drugs is an example of good intentions gone terribly wrong. While this country squanders billion dollars annually on the efforts to stop illegal drugs, trafficking and use continue. It has been said that trying to stop drugs is like trying to stop the rain. Over half of the prisoners in jail are there for drug ‘crimes.’ This causes overcrowding which results in the early release of dangerous, violent criminals. This creates more of a public safety problem than does drug use. It is illogical from a societal view and