Disclaimer: I do not use Marijuana myself, I have no intention of it either even if it was legalized. The very smell of it makes me nauseous and before anyone says, "Then why do you support it being legalized." The Smell of Mustard also makes me sick to my stomach, should I want to ban mustard?
There are a LOT of reasons that it should be legalized. Here are some of the most compelling.
1. How potheads act compared to how drunks act
Lets get this out of the way first: There are plenty of people out there who when drunk will beat their wives, their children, their pets, or random strangers. It's by no means anywhere near all of them but it doesn't change the fact that alcohol does affect some people that way. However when someone does weed, they don't beat their wives or children, they get hungry and lazy. However this argument doesn't stop there. If any of you know police officers, ask them whether they'd rather deal with someone who is drunk or deal with someone on Marijuana and its pretty much a guarantee that they'll say someone on marijuana.
How do I know this, I asked the cops I know myself and that is what they told me. They told me that most cops prefer dealing with someone on pot because they know that its pretty much a guarantee that they aren't going to get violent whereas someone whose drunk is a complete toss-up.
2. The fact that its illegal makes a mockery of our laws and legal system
If someone wants to stay at their own home and smoke a joint. They aren't doing anything to anyone else. Its pretty much the same if they wanted to sit home and drink or smoke a cigarette, only Cigarettes are far worse than Marijuana. Its not any of our business if someone smokes pot in their own home. Then you have the fact that our prisons are overcrowded and filling them with non-violent drug offenders is an awful idea and then it makes them far more likely to actually do something that is criminal for a good reason, like I don't know, rob a liquor store.
3. It really would be a really great economic move.
When people just dismiss the economic impact it would have it just shows their ignorance of just how much money the market for this drug is even though its illegal in most states. Marijuana is depending on where you look either the largest cash crop in the country of one of the largest.
Now the states with the highest poverty are in order
1. Mississippi
2. New Mexico
3. Louisiana
4. Arkansas
5. (not a state but) The District of Columbia
6. Georgia
7. Kentucky.
(I'm NOT bashing or criticizing the south here. This has far more to do with the economic benefits it would give the south.)
It also happens that those are the places where this would have the largest economic impact.
Marijuana is already the largest cash crop in pretty much all of those places. If you were to legalize it. Then these people wouldn't have to hide what they are doing, they wouldn't have to find a way to launder their money, and they could put it back into the community. It would lower poverty rates, it would increase the GDP, and it would increase the amount of money the governments make through taxes. This is not a negligible thing, this is a 35 billion dollar industry and getting it legalized and out in the open would be an awesome economic decision.
So these are the reasons why despite me not using pot or ever planning on using pot I do think it should be completely legal
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