Persuasive Essay On Legalizing Marijuana

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The age old debate of whether marijuana should be legalized or not has been a discussion for years among the public and throughout the country. The United States currently four states in which recreational marijuana is legal, along with 20 other states where medical marijuana is legal. The argument that always comes up in discussion is that marijuana is less or no more dangerous than alcohol. These comments are hardly ever backed up with statistics or data. Now with other states looking into legalizing marijuana, several police departments have come together to show what impact and challenges law enforcement has to deal with marijuana is legalized.
One of the many challenges that states are having to deal with, Colorado being an example, is a rise in the homeless population throughout the state. These are not homeless subjects that are having bad luck due to a job loss, or …show more content…

At this point, the only testing to find if someone is under the influence of THC is through a blood test. These test are very expensive for police department compared to breathalyzer tests for alcohol or even blood test for alcohol.
Another challenge and argument among critics is the rise in crime rate due to the legalization of marijuana. Many articles try to show how the legalization of marijuana would lower crimes rates. Some articles even show how there is a drastic decrease in marijuana violations once the substance was legalized. However, the articles fail to show the other crime statistics involved with the legalization of this substance.
The Denver Police statistics show that summing across all crime types -- about 35 in all -- the crime rate is up almost 7 percent compared with the same period last year. Interestingly, crimes such as public drunkenness are up 237 percent, and drug violations are up 20 percent. (Sabet, 2014, para.

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