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**Mogget** · 16th Jul 2012, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pseudojim

Quote:

Originally Posted by BudderMC

Err, I'm not trying to start anything up, but I'm one of the few who are against marijuana legalization (in this thread at least). Admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about it, but I don't see the need for it to be legalized. Could someone enlighten me a bit? :P

very briefly:

At the moment, even possession is illegal in most states, i think. This means that the enormous demand for cannabis is met by drug cartels and gangsters. I'm not using any references at the moment, and i know there are difficulties in establishing statistics when the black market is involved, but I think the cannabis economy in america is in excess of $50 billion per year (estimates will surely vary). At the moment, all of this money is controlled by criminals.

Since Reagan's war on drugs, cannabis use has increased.

The way i see it, if you legalise it and establish control, you can more effectively tackle problems of addiction and abuse, much like what is done with alcohol and tobacco currently. Additionally, compared to alcohol and tobacco, cannabis is far less damaging to the body.

That's some of my rationale, anyway

There's also the fact that anti-drug laws are disproportionately enforced against people of color. The war on drugs is the primary cause of the US having the highest per capita prison population in the world. Legalizing marijuana would reduce the prison population and would be a chink in the wall of modern institutional racism in this country.