Argumentative Essay: Proposition 19 Debates In California
Proposition 19 Debates in California Proposition 19, also known as The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010, has come to an end on November 2, 2010. The decision to legalize marijuana in California was unsuccessful. Votes came in at 54% no to 44% yes (LA Times). If I were a voter in California, I would have supported the legalization of marijuana for many reasons. I find marijuana to be a drug that could ultimately help the state of California as well as the United States as a whole. Many voters and critics feared that the legalization of marijuana would intensify drug abuse. This is the main reason the Proposition failed. Prop. 19 would have allowed Californians 21 and older to grow up to 25 square feet of cannabis plants, and to possess up to an ounce of marijuana (Knickerbocker). The addiction to marijuana is yet to be seen though. According to, “The Top Ten Reasons Marijuana Should Be Legal,” smoking pot clearly has far
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fewer dangerous and hazardous effects on society than legal drugs such as alcohol. I would have voted in support for Proposition 19 because marijuana is not nearly as bad as most believe it is. I believe alcohol and tobacco are both much worse for a person than smoking marijuana. According to Ali H. Mokdad of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the leading causes of annual deaths in the United States are a result of tobacco. It averages 435,000 deaths a year. Alcohol is third on the list of annual deaths contributing to 85,000 a year. Marijuana, on the other hand, is on the very bottom because there are no reported deaths due to the drug at all. If marijuana ultimately does not kill, why is it illegal while alcohol and tobacco, two major killers on the market, are legal? Also, marijuana does not lead to addiction nearly as easy as alcohol and tobacco do. Marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible and it is so much less addictive than alcohol and tobacco. According to the number 5 fact on High Times Top Ten List, “The dangers of marijuana use have been exaggerated for almost a century and the modern scientific record does not support the reefer madness predictions of the past and present.” Science back then was not as intricate as it is now. Scientists nowadays have found that marijuana is very helpful to cancer patients because it slows down tumor growth in the lungs, breasts, and brain considerable amounts (COED Magazine). According to this same magazine, since marijuana is a relaxing drug, it helps prevent seizures as well as migraines and glaucoma. Marijuana is also a huge help in calming down people that are diagnosed with ADD and is believed to be better than Ritalin or any other pharmaceutical drug that can be prescribed. One more amazing thing that marijuana can do in benefit of someone is helping prevent the chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease. It is surprising how much marijuana can actually benefit a person rather than hurt them. With the legalization of marijuana comes an influx into the United States economy, which is another huge reason why I would have voted in support of the Prop.
19 debates. Over 25 million people now use marijuana annually and it is now the largest cash crop in America today. If marijuana was to be taxed by the United States government, Allen Wastler of CNN states, “According to his calculations, the government would save $7.7 billion a year if it didn 't have to spend money policing and prosecuting marijuana activity. Then, if the feds taxed marijuana at a rate comparable to cigarettes and booze, another $6.2 billion would come rolling in.” That is a lot of money that could indeed help the United States get past the economic recession it is currently in. The taxation of marijuana would be just like the taxation on alcohol and tobacco. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax ad Trade Bureau reports alcohol taxes result in $9,499,306 dollars in the year 2008. In that same report, tobacco taxes added up to $7,153,044
dollars.
Also, if marijuana was legalized and controlled by the FDA, it would be harder for children to acquire the drug. By no means is marijuana meant to be in the hands of kids. Being that the only place people can get it now is the black market, it is very available for kids to buy and use on their own. This makes the price on the street higher as well because the risk these dealers are taking smuggling it in through the border and also domestic sales occur often. If the government were to control the output of marijuana, drug cartels would lose all of their power. This would happen because the cost of marijuana would lower if the FDA were to regulate it. Lastly, if the government was to legalize marijuana, law enforcement could concentrate on bigger things going on in the world today. The number 3 fact on the Top Ten Reasons Marijuana Should Be Legal states, “Marijuana arrests make justice more expensive and less efficient in the United States, wasting jail space, clogging up court systems, and diverting time of police, attorneys, judges, and corrections officials away from violent crime, the sexual abuse of children, and terrorism.” Legalizing the drug would ultimately divert the attention of law enforcement personnel to the more important events happening in present day times. All in all, if I were a voter in the 2010 Proposition 19 election, I would have voted yes on the ballot. I believe that the legalization of marijuana can generously help the United States in many ways such as adding another form of taxation to the government, helping in the medical field, and diminishing the power of the drug cartels. High Times Magazine stated it perfectly, “Prohibition hasn 't stopped the use and domestic production of marijuana -- it 's time everyone faced this.” The legalization of marijuana, ultimately, would not hurt the United States at all. Once again, my vote would have been casted as a yes in the hope that this would help the U.S. a great amount.
Works Cited http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/election/la-election-results-california,0,826124.htmlstory http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/1103/Prop.-19-in-California-legalized-marijuana-goes-up-in-smoke http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/proposition-19-results-california-votes-reject-marijuana-measure/story?id=12037727 http://www.alternet.org/drugs/60959/ http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/30 http://www.mjlegal.org/alctob.html http://coedmagazine.com/2010/09/02/10-major-health-benefits-of-marijuana/ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/05/health/cbsdoc/main4844665.shtml http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/07/commentary/wastler/wastler/ http://search.treas.gov/search?q=cache:0dkxIMKTdrIJ:www.ttb.gov/statistics/final08.pdf+total+revenue+2008&output=xml_no_dtd&client=ttb&proxystylesheet=ttb&ie=UTF-8&site=ttb&access=p&oe=ISO-8859-1
fewer dangerous and hazardous effects on society than legal drugs such as alcohol. I would have voted in support for Proposition 19 because marijuana is not nearly as bad as most believe it is. I believe alcohol and tobacco are both much worse for a person than smoking marijuana. According to Ali H. Mokdad of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the leading causes of annual deaths in the United States are a result of tobacco. It averages 435,000 deaths a year. Alcohol is third on the list of annual deaths contributing to 85,000 a year. Marijuana, on the other hand, is on the very bottom because there are no reported deaths due to the drug at all. If marijuana ultimately does not kill, why is it illegal while alcohol and tobacco, two major killers on the market, are legal? Also, marijuana does not lead to addiction nearly as easy as alcohol and tobacco do. Marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible and it is so much less addictive than alcohol and tobacco. According to the number 5 fact on High Times Top Ten List, “The dangers of marijuana use have been exaggerated for almost a century and the modern scientific record does not support the reefer madness predictions of the past and present.” Science back then was not as intricate as it is now. Scientists nowadays have found that marijuana is very helpful to cancer patients because it slows down tumor growth in the lungs, breasts, and brain considerable amounts (COED Magazine). According to this same magazine, since marijuana is a relaxing drug, it helps prevent seizures as well as migraines and glaucoma. Marijuana is also a huge help in calming down people that are diagnosed with ADD and is believed to be better than Ritalin or any other pharmaceutical drug that can be prescribed. One more amazing thing that marijuana can do in benefit of someone is helping prevent the chance of getting Alzheimer’s disease. It is surprising how much marijuana can actually benefit a person rather than hurt them. With the legalization of marijuana comes an influx into the United States economy, which is another huge reason why I would have voted in support of the Prop.
19 debates. Over 25 million people now use marijuana annually and it is now the largest cash crop in America today. If marijuana was to be taxed by the United States government, Allen Wastler of CNN states, “According to his calculations, the government would save $7.7 billion a year if it didn 't have to spend money policing and prosecuting marijuana activity. Then, if the feds taxed marijuana at a rate comparable to cigarettes and booze, another $6.2 billion would come rolling in.” That is a lot of money that could indeed help the United States get past the economic recession it is currently in. The taxation of marijuana would be just like the taxation on alcohol and tobacco. The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax ad Trade Bureau reports alcohol taxes result in $9,499,306 dollars in the year 2008. In that same report, tobacco taxes added up to $7,153,044
dollars.
Also, if marijuana was legalized and controlled by the FDA, it would be harder for children to acquire the drug. By no means is marijuana meant to be in the hands of kids. Being that the only place people can get it now is the black market, it is very available for kids to buy and use on their own. This makes the price on the street higher as well because the risk these dealers are taking smuggling it in through the border and also domestic sales occur often. If the government were to control the output of marijuana, drug cartels would lose all of their power. This would happen because the cost of marijuana would lower if the FDA were to regulate it. Lastly, if the government was to legalize marijuana, law enforcement could concentrate on bigger things going on in the world today. The number 3 fact on the Top Ten Reasons Marijuana Should Be Legal states, “Marijuana arrests make justice more expensive and less efficient in the United States, wasting jail space, clogging up court systems, and diverting time of police, attorneys, judges, and corrections officials away from violent crime, the sexual abuse of children, and terrorism.” Legalizing the drug would ultimately divert the attention of law enforcement personnel to the more important events happening in present day times. All in all, if I were a voter in the 2010 Proposition 19 election, I would have voted yes on the ballot. I believe that the legalization of marijuana can generously help the United States in many ways such as adding another form of taxation to the government, helping in the medical field, and diminishing the power of the drug cartels. High Times Magazine stated it perfectly, “Prohibition hasn 't stopped the use and domestic production of marijuana -- it 's time everyone faced this.” The legalization of marijuana, ultimately, would not hurt the United States at all. Once again, my vote would have been casted as a yes in the hope that this would help the U.S. a great amount.
Works Cited http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/election/la-election-results-california,0,826124.htmlstory http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/The-Vote/2010/1103/Prop.-19-in-California-legalized-marijuana-goes-up-in-smoke http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/proposition-19-results-california-votes-reject-marijuana-measure/story?id=12037727 http://www.alternet.org/drugs/60959/ http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/30 http://www.mjlegal.org/alctob.html http://coedmagazine.com/2010/09/02/10-major-health-benefits-of-marijuana/ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/05/health/cbsdoc/main4844665.shtml http://money.cnn.com/2005/06/07/commentary/wastler/wastler/ http://search.treas.gov/search?q=cache:0dkxIMKTdrIJ:www.ttb.gov/statistics/final08.pdf+total+revenue+2008&output=xml_no_dtd&client=ttb&proxystylesheet=ttb&ie=UTF-8&site=ttb&access=p&oe=ISO-8859-1