The legalization of marijuana in the United States Research Paper

The legalization of marijuana in the United States - Research Paper Example However, there is also a giant percentage of public which believes that criminalization of marijuana possession has always been a defeated objective. It is a kind of government objective which has consumed a lot of manpower and valuable limited resources. However still, the government is nowhere close to discouraging the public from smoking marijuana. Basically, this research paper seeks to argue that cannabis should be legalized or decriminalized in the US. The paper will present and explicate multiple reasons to augment the argument that marijuana is a drug with a variety of uses and minor risks. To validate the argument, marijuana will also be compared with alcohol and tobacco as a way of demonstrating how marijuana is so much less detrimental than the latter substances and still looked down upon by the government with such intensity, which is absolutely unjustified. War on drugs, particularly marijuana, is a complete failure. It has consumed trillions of dollars to date and continues to exert more financial pressure on the American government with every passing day. Prohibition on this drug has affected society very badly because more people are reported or jailed for minor drug offenses and people have to go to extreme measures to get this drug. Many such measures often affect their self-esteem in a very bad way given the circumstances and the places they have to bear to get the drug discreetly. Research also claims that the main reason marijuana often affects users’ lives negatively is not because of the drug really, but â€Å"because of the consequences attached with using the drug† (Pitts cited in Millat). Research shows that the US government has wasted a lot of money to keep marijuana from reaching the market in the past. According to an estimate, the US government suffers a total cost of about $10 billion on an annual basis in myriad efforts to make the country free of this drug. On the other hand, the State of California produces