by Bee Rock

Created on: September 22, 2008

Marijuana should not be legalized, it should be decriminalized. Do you realize how many non violent "criminals" are put in jail every year for marijuana possession related crimes? About half of all criminals in jail today are non violent. Most of them are in jail for Marijuana. The government makes a lot of money by raising cash for "the war against marijuana".

Marijuana does not make people violent, it makes people sit on the couch and eat junk food. Alcohol makes people get in fights, have un-protected sex, and do other stupid crimes like run out on tabs, drive in a reckless manner, and hurt themselves or other people.
Why isn't alcohol illegal? The U.S. government tried that already in the 1920's and 30's with prohibition. It didn't work. Marijuana being illegal helps the government rule and keep people in fear of oppression. How do you rule an innocent man? Feed him dogma and put him in jail for relaxing after work in his own home. The United States of America is not a communist country. We should be free to relax and do what we want in the privacy of our own home. Our country was built on values of privacy and individual freedoms. Why is this any different? I believe this is inherently wrong. If the U.S. government de-criminalized marijuana, the economy would rise up.
Our biggest problem in the U.S. and the coming recession/depression is our dependency on foreign oil. The male marijuana plant (hemp) is the most reliable and inexpensive way to run our vehicles. The U.S. wants nothing to do with it. You cannot get high from hemp, it doesn't seem to matter to the governement.
We need to start being adults about this. It's not about raising crimes. I believe drugs are wrong, violence is wrong. Marijuana is not a drug and doesn't make people violent though. Lets wake up, stop trying to put people in prison without reason, and help our economy.
There have been entire case studies in Europe about how people who smoke marijuana do not react violently at sporting events and people who drink alcohol do. People who drank alcohol fought and yelled and reacted violently. People who smoked weed did not. They sat very quietly and relaxed.
I believe if we legalize or even de criminalize marijuana we will see an uprising in the economy. I also believe our prisons will not be as crowded with non violent criminals. The more we put non violent criminals in prison the more the violent ones get to get out and back into circulation. Is it really worth it to let violent people out earlier so we can lock up a hippie who drags on a joint? It is not common sense to sit back and watch this happen. I'm dissapointed and confused on how it did, but it mostly comes down to education and the lack thereof. It's high time we realized that the old way is not working. We need to progress as a a society before we're in another dust bowl.

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