Essay on MarijuanaIt has been debated for decades: Is the cost of combating marijuana use worth the cost to taxpayers and society? Like all drugs, there are health effects on people who use marijuana and those who have to be around smoke. Unlike other drugs, marijuana appears to render its users useless. The long debates over legalizing marijuana have gone from not legalizing it because it is a gateway drug to legalizing it to make it less desirable and, of course, the tax revenue it would bring. Both Colorado and Washington have decided to legalize marijuana for recreational use and for the country. he's been absorbed in how it's going to end. As long as the government stands by the fact that marijuana is an illegal substance, the only people who win are the consumers. Let's explore why legalizing marijuana is not a good idea. Some states believe that legalizing marijuana will reduce costs in the legislative branch at the local, state, and even federal levels. States may be very supportive of legalizing marijuana as the majority of criminal prosecutions and housing fall to the state with very few marijuana cases making it all the way to the federal level. It would be easy to understand why a state would be happier to legalize marijuana when the costs of enforcing anti-marijuana laws go down and tax revenues go up. According to marijuana-statistics.com “There were a total of 1,846,351 state and local arrests for drug abuse violations in the United States during 2005. Of the drug arrests, 4.9% were for sale/production of marijuana and 37.7% for possession of marijuana. " (marijuana-statistics.com) This tells me that 37.7% of these arrests would already be eliminated from state costs with legalization. The other 4.9% would become potential re...... middle of paper. .....arch Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 30, 2014. Crombie, Noelle. "Marijuana News: Colorado Governor Warns Other States About Weed Legalization." Web. March 30, 30.Hartman H. Marijuana Legalization and the Workplace: Preparing for the Trend. Employee Relations Law Journal [Online Serial]. Collection, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 30, 2014."Marijuana: Facts Parents Need to Know." DRUGABUSE.GOV. NIDA Drugs Publishing, March 2014. Web. March 30, 2014"Marijuana Statistics." com. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, nd Web. March 30, 2014. Shaw M. Legalizes Weed Now as High Priority. ENR: Engineering News-Record [online serial]. January 20, 2014;282(3):8. Available from: Academic Research Completed, Ipswich, MA. Accessed March 30, 2014