On Marijuana Legalization

There has been a growing movement in the United States for the legalization of marijuana. There's been an even greater pool of people who support its legalization. I still somewhat waver between ideas, but here is a brief intro into the topic.

The Legalization of Marijuana Will Provide Much Needed Taxes

This is an interesting argument. While, yes, if the government were to allow the sale of marijuana and businesses grew out of that, then there would be an excellent source of taxes, one must realize that there is already an enormous black market for this product and breaking through that would be hard. Whereas the Prohibition was run by gangs and very few moonshine makers were supplying, we have multiple dealers with cartels very rarely organized enough to become legit after legalization. But there is potential.

Prohibiting a Drug Just Makes it More Popular

This is also true. Look at the Prohibition itself. But, something that few people rarely realize is that not everyone went to speakeasies and bought bootlegged liquor. It would be interesting to compare the rates of those who drank during Prohibition and the rates of those who drank after it ended. I would think that percentage-wise, the numbers would go up after Prohibition ended.

Taxes Pt. 2

Another interesting idea with taxes would be allowing drug dealers to file taxes legally. This would give incentives for dealers to put their money in banks and would then create a paper trail basically forcing the dealers to pay taxes or get involved with the IRS. Then again, dealers have been used to dealing with cash, or laundering the money, so the incentives would have to be great.

Legalizing Marijuana Will Clear Out Our Prisons

(Stats coming from Slate.com)

20% of inmates in the United States are in for drug charges. Of that 20%, most are in for distribution, not possession (there's an argument to be made for distribution charges being made for simple possession, but that is not my attempt here). A decriminalization of the possession of marijuana would not be enough to lower the prison populations significantly. Legalization may achieve this goal.


This is obviously a very brief overview of some of the arguments in favor of legalization, and now for my own view. Currently, I'm not convinced that we should decriminalize marijuana. I do, on the other hand, believe that charges should never be accompanied with jail time, instead it should simply be a misdemeanor charge with heavy fines and community service. If the fines are paid and the community service completed, I think it should be stricken from their offenders record.