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The Argument For The Legalization Of Marijuana In The United States?

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In his essay On Liberty, John Stuart Mill proposes his famous harm principle. The Harm principle states “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others”(On Liberty pg. 49). This means that any individual can do what they want as long as they are not hurting another member of the civilized society that they both belong to. Mill argues that the government cannot hold people accountable for choices they make as long as it doesn’t harm others. The government could show it’s disapproval of certain actions but it could not infringed upon the individual’s rights. In this paper, I am going to extend Mill’s harm principle and libertarian arguments to the movement for legalization of Marijuana in the United States. I will show how the legalization of Marijuana will benefit society as a whole. The legalization of marijuana is important because it has intrinsically become a battle for individual rights and Libertarianism. …show more content…

Drug use is a choice that is made by an individual, which does not violate another person’s natural rights. Some individuals are against the legalization of marijuana by proposing hypothetical situations that try to show the harm of the drugs use such as “what if people would drive high and cause an accident”. Situations like these don’t call for a need of substance ban but rather for strict regulations just like drunk driving laws. These laws are created to ensure that those who choose to participate in these potential dangerous actions are able to enjoy their freedom of choice while protecting those that could be harms. Although there is a possibility for individualistic dangers of marijuana legalization as long as it is regulated we can allow individuals to make their own

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