Quote Originally Posted by The Creeper
There is so much wrong with this post I do not know where to start. You say the government should limit spending and bring in more money. The legalization process and the process of setting new laws and guidelines to the using, distributing, and production of marijuana would cost BILLIONS. and the gains from this process would not be seen over night, it would be many years down the road after everything is perfected. I agree with you that this process should happen in the next 5-10 years, but right now, not a chance.
Yes, you are right. It would take an initial investment of time and money for legalization to occur. However, it would be a one time cost, unlike the BILLIONS spent annually to limit marijuana usage even though it is ineffective.

Another thing, think about who would be selling this product if it were legalized. Those companies would be reaping huge benefits from the sales. If Marijuana was legalized, the price would be much more then what it costs now, I can promise you that. If you wanted the regulation to work, there would be very strict guidelines to whats legal and illegal. They would make certain products legal, and marijuana grown naturally or personally illegal. This is what would have to be done for the government to see any benefit to the legalization of the drug. If the simply legalized the drug, It would save money in the court systems and jailing systems no doubt, but it would not generate any kind of money coming in.
Legalization would lower prices, not raise them. Money would be generated off sales/vice taxes.

Another way to look at this is say it was legalized and regualted perfectly. And then companies started to distribute marijuana with no troubles, and everyone bought from these companies. It would be expensive, and im sure millions of people would be buying this product. This would take away millions of dollars of profit from other companies selling any product you can think of. This would not stimulate the economy at all, it would actually have a negative effect.
Again, prices would be lower, not higher. Think about it. Currently, the supply of marijuana for Americans is low, while the demand is high. This causes high prices. Once it is legalized, the supply would be able to match the demand better and lower prices. Also, the economy is ever changing, and limiting something because it could hurt somebody else's business is pretty dumb. Should the government make the sale of import cars illegal because it hurts the business of the Big Three?

That being said, this goes back to simply legalizing the use of the drug. How much good would this actually do? I garuntee it would still be illegal to distribute or sell on the streets. It would be illegal to do it while driving. And I can garuntee you the common work place would not allow it either. So if you think about all of that, it really would not help the court system or save our government any money at all. I typically hear about people getting arrested because they were high driving, had it in their possession while doing something illegal, being something minor or major, or dealing the drug. So the people that simply use it at home, at night, not planning on going anywhere, never really going to get caught, should not care about the legalization, because it hardly effects them. To me this not abusing the drug, but simply using it to relax on their own time(meaning not at work, or driving, etc etc) in a safe controlled enviroment that the general public has no problem with.
That is a lot of speculation. Also, legalization affects all marijuana users, whether they would get caught or not.



Sorry for the long rant, and I know its a bit cluttered and jumps thoughts, but I did not feel like writing a well thought out essay to get my general point across. So in conclusion, I think the people that bitch the most about the legalization of marijuana are the people that abuse it. Im done for now talking about this subject, and if this post gets flamed, I will then write a well thought out essay and post it up in here.
No prob