directly linked to acute alcohol poisoning. 2. In 4,000 years of recorded history, no one has ever died from a pot overdose. 3. Alcohol causes physical and psychology dependence. 4. Alcohol is reported to cause temporary and permanent damage to all major organs of the body. 5. Cannabis is a much less violent provoking substance than alcohol (Studyworld). Americans have referred to privacy as one of the basic human rights. According to U.S. traditions, there is a strong case to be made against the legislation of the private behavior of adults, so long as that behavior does not in turn violate the rights of others. Some people feel that this reasoning should hold also for marijuana. A person who smokes at home is not causing injury to others and, as it will be discussed later, the injury that is undergone by the individuals is not clear. It does not seem that smoking marijuana is any worse for a person's health than smoking cigarettes are. The marijuana user is indulging in a minor pleasure over which the government should have no jurisdiction (Legalization of Marijuana). Again, Spencer's philosophy tells us that freedom means that people will have responsibility over their own lives and only through our ability to choose will individuals fully develop and allow society as a whole to progress. Furthermore, the government's restriction on our freedom's regarding marijuana don't make sense because no injury is being inflicted on others, and the personal injury being undergone in unclear. Moving on to the next issue, the government is wasting our time and money by locking up citizens who use marijuana, by concentrating its efforts on a relatively minor crime, and by spending billions of dollars on the persecution, prosecution, and incarceration of individuals breaking marijuana related laws. In 1998, the federal government spent $16 billion on the "drug war." Approximately 53%, or $8.4 billion dollars, were spent on enforcement, co...
