Recreational use of marijuana in America should be legalized federally

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Recreational use of Marijuana in America should be legalized federally
In recent past California become the first state to legalize the use of recreational marijuana. Marijuana has many medicinal benefits and doctors have been using it to in their medication for a long time. The use of marijuana as a recreation drug has been a topic in many states but they only a few are willing to legalize it. There are many arguments for and against using marijuana as a recreation drug. Some argue that using it should be a personal choice and others claim that if marijuana is legalized for recreation purpose, there would be negative effects like increased road accidents due to drivers. It is clear that this issue of legalizing marijuana for recreation purpose will have a significant effect on society.
If federal legalizes recreational marijuana will benefit in many ways. Recreational marijuana has a high demand and if it is legalized this will create high revenue for the federal government. It is estimated that legalizing marijuana would generate about $7.4 billion in revenue annually (Miron & Jeffrey, 2). This industry will continue to grow and this will create a revenue source for the government. On the other hand, our justice system if full of minor offenders with many cases of possession of marijuana. On legalizing recreational marijuana, the justice system will reduce workload which will increase efficiency injustice system and save taxpayers money sent on marijuana offenders.

Marijuana is not much harmful than other drugs like alcohol and tobacco which are legal according to “US Food and Drug Control”. The reason for controlling legal marijuana is not based on verifiable facts but the perception of the society on the drug. It is also very expensive to enforce marijuana ban as there very many people who still use the drug for recreation purpose in spite of it being illegal in possession on the drug. California state was using about $200 million to about 1.9 billion to enforcing marijuana laws (Caulkins et al, 868)
Use of marijuana for recreation purpose should be an individual choice and government should not step to control one choice. The government has no concrete reason to control the use of marijuana use by the general population. These decisions should lie among individuals on whether to use marijuana or not. Marijuana is the most popular recreational drug after alcohol and tobacco in the US (Blumenaue et al, 9).
Lastly, legalizing marijuana will create new jobs in the economy. Recreational marijuana industry, if legalized by federal government wills, support many people. This industry will create income from farmers to the sellers in the market.
Works Cited
Caulkins, Jonathan P. et al. “Design Considerations For Legalizing Cannabis: Lessons Inspired By Analysis Of California’s Proposition 19”. Addiction, vol 107, no. 5, 2011, pp. 865-871.
Blumenauer, Earl, and Jared Polis. “The path forward: rethinking federal marijuana policy.” (2012).
Miron, Jeffrey A. The budgetary implications of marijuana prohibition. Marijuana Policy Project, 2005.