bition, and alcohol taxes were increased. The same thing should happen with pot. Marijuana could be heavily taxed to increase our country’s revenue. Moreover, major companies operating under strict government regulations would legally produce marijuana, resulting in a higher quality product free of poisons and other adulterants (2).Making marijuana legal would greatly reduce the vast amount of money spent on drug law enforcement every year. Drug dealers and users seem to constantly be one step ahead of the authorities, anyway. If one drug lord is caught, for instance, another one turns up somewhere else to take his place. We cannot win. For example: "In 1990, well over 10 billion dollars was spent on drug enforcement alone. Drugs accounted for more than 40 percent of all felony indictments in our nation’s courts in 1992. This figure is quadruple what it was in 1985. Forty percent of the people in federal prison are drug law violators" (2).One can only imagine what this figure would be like today. Too much money is wasted on a cause that there seems to be no end to."In 1989, a Republican county executive of Mercer County, NJ estimated that it would cost as much as one billion dollars to build the jail space needed to house all of the drug offenders in Trenton alone" (2).All of this money could certainly be used on better things. By lifting the ban on marijuana and treating it like other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, the nation would gain both immediate and long-term benefits. This change in the law would greatly improve the quality of life for many people in need of the herb’s medicinal properties (3). Victims of cancer, anorexia, AIDS, chronic pain, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine, or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief, for example, would find quality marijuana readily available. Also, the cloud of suspicion over marijuana would disappear, and doctors could get on with legitimate investigating of ...
