Legalize It

Persuasion Speech

Ctas124 1102

Legalize it

The U.S. Government has been waging a war on its own people for the past 65 years. A war that cost the Federal Government 214.7 billion dollars in the past two decades and, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) also states that it has spent 18.8 billion dollars in 2002. This is the war on Marijuana.

Having seen first-hand the effects, both positive and negative, of Marijuana, I can tell you that there are far better things the government could be spending its money on and far more important problems it should be focusing on. The laws against Marijuana are doing more harm than good.

Body:

Reasons to legalize Marijuana

I. It can be used for many thingsÐ'...

a. Satisfaction: flour, oil, fuel, cloth, medicine, etc.

b. Visualization: one crop, a million uses. Economical, environmentally friendly.

c. Action: At the very least legalize Hemp (no THC) for industrial use.

Trans: Here's another reasonÐ'...

II. Cut down on prison overcrowding and court costs

a. S- 55.5% of the prison population is there because of a drug charge according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. According to the bureau of Justice Statistics, the nation spent $146,556,000,000 (billion) in 1999 on Federal, State, and Local justice systems. The cost of corrections, judicial, legal, and police expenses for one inmate for one year is $78,154.

b. V- Out of the 1,893,115 (Bureau of Justice Stats) prisoners in 1999 about 25%(500k) were there for possession of drugs. To house these people it costs $39 billion a year. If Marijuana were legalized, that's potentially $39 billion dollars that could be spent on something else, like building libraries or spending more on education. Split up, that could mean an extra $780 million for each state. That would also cut down the prison population by about 25%. It's not putting criminals back out on the street either, most of the people that get caught with drugs are just at the wrong place at the wrong time.

c. A- The original intention of prisons was to help people keep other people out of their business. Arresting someone for carrying Marijuana is definitely NOT staying out of other people's business. Speak up, talk about it. Tell people that the problem is not the drug itself.

Trans: No one has ever OD'd on Marijuana, so why are we worried about it?

III. If Marijuana were legal, you could go to the store to buy a bag instead of going to some sketchy drug dealer who tries to sell other drugs. If there is any validity about pot being a gateway drug, it's because it's being sold with harder drugs, not because it's addictive in itself.

a. S- If we don't want our kids getting into worse drugs, then get them away from them. The easiest way to do that is to recentralize the market for it, which would be to legalize it and impose similar taxes/laws as nicotine and alcohol. If the legitimate market undersold the illegal dealers, people wouldn't have as