Legalization of marijuana would save billions

Billed as the liberal alternative Drudge, The Raw Story has an excellent column by Amanda L. Stevens on legalizing marijuana. She rightly points out that legalization would greatly reduce the burden of America’s prison system on taxpayers.

In the past year, the population in America’s jails and prisons has grown to 6.9 million, including those on probation and parole. A 1999 study showed that 60,000 individuals were behind bars for marijuana use. This cost taxpayers $1.2 billion.
Nor does it reflect the number of individuals or the amount spent on those who had their probation or parole revoked for marijuana use. In total, in prosecuting and policing individuals with regards to marijuana, between $7 billion and $10 billion was spent — and that’s just last year.
Ninety percent of those cases were for possession only.

Powerful statistics and she has more.

There are more arrests made on marijuana charges than violent crimes combined. These violent crimes include assault, rape, robbery and murder....
Marijuana arrests have doubled from 1991 to 2000, as arrests regarding cocaine and heroine have decreased by one-third. More that 700,000 people are arrested on marijuana charges each year.

She goes on to make the point that the real "gateway drugs" in our society are alcohol and tobacco, both of which kill thousands every year. I might add that there has not been a single reported death attributable solely to use of marijuana in the history of mankind. So why should the first two be legal and the most beneficial be illegal?

Amanda can tell you why it shouldn't.

Legalized, it could provide many jobs at a time when jobs are much needed. Taxing marijuana would also provide more money for policies geared towards helping the country as a whole. It could help many states that are finding themselves closer and closer to bankruptcy gain much-needed funding.

So let's review. We can eliminate overcrowding in jails caused by non-violent drug possession convictions, we can free up our law enforcement to concentrate on violent crime and we could provide badly needed jobs and tax revenue to our municipalities. Over 70% of the population believes cannabis should not be an arrestable offense. So what are our legislators waiting for?