FINANCE THE BAILOUT: LEGALIZE WEED

Legalizing weed would be a better use of resources for all levels of
government. Even though Marijuana is non-addictive, according to
health experts, it is illegal to make, sell, produce or use. If legal,
the drug could be a source of tax revenue, reduce law enforcement
costs and provide a healthier alternative.

A legal marijuana market would generate between 2.4 billion dollars
and 6.2 billion dollars in tax revenues, depending on the tax rates,
according to the article "Budgetary Implications of Marijuana
Prohibition in the United States". These revenues could be distributed
to the state and federal governments. It would also generate billions
of dollars in government savings.

The costs of law enforcement are estimated to be almost 8 billion
dollars a year, according to the Spring 2007 "Journal of Drug Issues".
Federal, state and local money is spent on drug control, police
agencies, persecution, imprisonment, drug education, treatment
and research. At the same time, there is no evidence enforcing
marijuana laws is effective, according to the journal.

Also, cigarettes have more proven negative health effects than
marijuana. There were 117,752 deaths from smoking related
cardiovascular diseases and 101,043 deaths from smoking related
respiratory diseases in 2004, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.

Arguments against legalization say marijuana is a gateway drug. Weed
can lead to other crimes. And marijuana is the most prevalent drug on
campus, said campus police. In addition, users could turn to harder
drugs such as heroin, cocaine or crack if they're not satisfied with
marijuana.

However, the benefits of legalizing marijuana outweigh the costs. In
the April 2 issue of Rolling Stone, the Editor's Notes read, "We
literally cannot afford not to legalize marijuana. Pot is a
multibillion-dollar cash crop in much of the country, yet around the
only revenue state governments-most of which are wrestling with
unfillable budget deficits--can extract from it are the sales taxes on
grow lights and Phish tickets."

For these reasons, college students, future policy makers, should
support legalization of weed.