Kathryn+R.

**Why Marijuana should be legal.**
The debate over whether or not pot should be legalized in the US has overrun its time and there really is only one truley reasonable side to the argument: legalization. Arguments that claim legalization will decrease the moral or the society, that pot is so harmful, and that pot will lead to other more harmful drugs are all myths. Our societys moral would not decrease in the least from this, if anything our society could benefit from a decline of the fight of war on drugs and making money off taxing the drug. Another aspect to inspect is why marijuana was even made illegal in the first place. And to many peoples surprise the reasoning had absolutley nothing to do with the arguments against legalizaing it today. If our countries government job if to protect our society and limit potential opportunites that could harm the people then not only should marijuana be illegal, but so should alcohol, tobacoo, bungee jumping, mcdonalds..every risk factor out there. Here is my point, the government has gone too far in protecting us from ourselves by outlawing marijuana. They have granted us the ability to decide whether or not we want to take certain risks such as alcohol consumption and smoking tobacco. It is statistically proven that alcohol, tobacco, and obesity have more potential risks that smoking or injesting marijuana. And by risks, this includes all health risks like overall life expectancy and potenial illnesses as well as risks of the society in general.

Firstly, while the general question raised is why marijuana should be legal, a better viewpoint to look at is why shouldnt majijuana be legal. From a philisophical viewpoint people should have the right to make choices for themselves. The government only has the right to limit those choices if the infividuals actions endanger someone else. This does not apply to marijuana, since the person who chooses to use pot is at thier free will. The government also has the right to limit an individuals actions if the actions pose a significant threat to the individual. Again however this agrument does not logically apple to the issue of marijuana because it is chemically proven to be far less harmful that some drugs that are legal, such as alcohol and tobacco. Overall individuals deserve the right to decide whether or not they should use marijuana and the government should not tell individuals what to do as long ad they do not harm others.

The second important reason that marijuana should be legal is that it would save our government lots of money. In the United States, all levels of government (federal, state, and local authorities) participate in the "War on Drugs." We currently spend billions of dollars every year to chase peaceful people who happen to like to get high. These people get locked up in prison and the taxpayers have to foot the bill. We have to pay for food, housing, health care, attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses to lock these people up. This is extremely expensive! We could save billions of dollars every year as a nation if we stop wasting money locking people up for having marijuana. In addition, if marijuana were legal, the government would be able to collect taxes on it, and would have a lot more money to pay for effective education programs and other important causes. Bottomline, we would have more money to spend on important problems if marijuana were legal.

And Lastly, prohibition doesn't help nor work. The third major reason that marijuana should be legal is because prohibition does not help the country in any way, and causes a lot of problems. There is no good evidence that prohibition decreases drug use, and there are several theories that suggest prohibition might actually increase drug use (i.e. the "forbidden fruit" effect, and easier accessibility for youth). One unintended effect of marijuana prohibition is that marijuana is very popular in American high schools. Why? Because it is available. You don't have to be 21 to buy marijuana -- marijuana dealers usually don't care how old you are as long as you have money. It is actually easier for many high school students to obtain marijuana than it is for them to obtain alcohol, because alcohol is legal and therefore regulated to keep it away from kids. If our goal is to reduce drug consumption, then we should focus on open and honest programs to educate youth, regulation to keep drugs away from kids, and treatment programs for people with drug problems. But the current prohibition scheme does not allow such reasonable approaches to marijuana; instead we are stuck with police officers spreading lies about drugs in schools, and policies that result in jail time rather than treatment for people with drug problems. We tried prohibition with alcohol, and that failed miserably. We should be able to learn our lesson and stop repeating the same mistake. Overall prohibition does not work, it never will, and education and treatment are better ways to address the drug problem.

This opinion is not coming from a huge pot head or someone who has actually ever used marijuana, but an observant individual that sees flaw in our government system. After reseaching the government true authority over its people and the actual effects of the use of marijuana and the effects of the drug war economically on our society, I believe it should appear obvious to everyone that majiuana should be legal.