The United States should legalize marijuana

I will be affirming the resolution that Marijuana should be legalized in the U. S. My argument will consist of five contentions in which I will prove that the U. S. government should legalize marijuana. Contention 1: People deserve the freedom My first point will be that there is no good reason to not make marijuana legal. Many people ask 'Why should marijuana be made legal? ' but we should ask 'Why should marijuana be illegal? ' Individuals deserve to make their own choices. The government only has the right to put limits on these choices hurt another person. This doesn't apply to marijuana, since the person who chooses to use marijuana only affects the person that uses it. Contention 2: Keeping marijuana illegal is too expensive. The second point is that marijuana legalization would save the U. S. government a great deal of money. In one year alone the U. S. government spends $42 billion trying to get rid of marijuana by chasing down peaceful people who happen to like to get high [1]. These people get locked up in jail and we 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 up these people. This is a extremely expensive method and simply costs too much. Think of how many better uses that money could be put too. Contention 3: It would give the government more funds. If marijuana were to be legalized it could be taxed and the government could get revenue to do its job better, such as paying off our national debt. Contention 4: Marijuana prohibition doesn't help the U. S. The third point I will make for why marijuana should be legalized is because prohibition doesn't help the U. S. in any way at all, and cause a ton of problems. There is not one good piece of good evidence that prohibition decreases marijuana use, and there are quite a few theories that suggest that it might be increasing marijuana use. One of the unintended effects of weed prohibition is it is very popular in high schools. Why is this? Because it is available. People don't have to be 21 to buy marijuana, marijuana dealers usually do not care about the age of their customers as long as they have enough money. It's easier for high schoolers to get their hands on marijuana then it is for them to get alcohol, because alcohol is legal and regulated so it will stay away from kids. We would do better if we just relied on honest open programs to educate the youth and regulated it so it stays out of the hands of kids. But our current prohibition plan does not allow such reasonable approaches to weed. The The programs such as 'DARE' lie about marijuana and also does not even work. We tried and failed miserably in alcohol prohibition, and now it is time that we learn from our past. [2] Contention 5: Marijuana has medical uses. Marijuana should be legalized because it also has certain properties that would be useful to the medical feild. In past years the palnt has treated many different sickenesses and disorders. It has even been used to treat the harsh effects of Kemo Therapy durring cancer treatment. Some of the ailments that marijuana is effective against are Arthritis, Epilepsy, Glaucoma, Eating Disorders, and many more [3]. Conclusion In conclusion, legalizing marijuana would be better the keeping it illegal. The pros outway the cons when it comes to it. It would save money, and it would even decrease teen marijuana use, and it would make a lot of medical patients feel better. Vote Pro! [1] . http://www.alternet.org...... [2] . http://en.wikipedia.org...... [3] . http://www.medicalmarijuanablog.com......