ECONOMY COULD BE INFUSED BY LEGALIZATION

In the article [editorial] "Finance the bailout: Legalize weed"
written April 7, 2009, I found that it lacked strong points for the
legalization of marijuana. While the author does make good arguments
such as it "generate between 2.4 billion dollars and 6.2 billion
dollars in tax revenues." And the point on law enforcement cost.
"Costs of law enforcement are estimated to be almost 8 billion
dollars a year." I believe the author had the right idea but failed
to mention some major points.

Such as the fact that the U.S pays to import hemp; a very strong and
clean alternative to cotton. Or the point that why can our own
government tell us what we can and can not put into our bodies. There
is no possible way to overdose on marijuana while alcohol a readily
available substance takes many life's a year.

Furthermore legalizing pot would take many no-violent offenders out
of our already overpopulated prisons; this in its self would help
states to lower costs sense the cost of maintain a prisoner is
already very high. I do agree with the author, legalizing marijuana
could tremendously help bring money back in to the economy and with
lawmakers looking at attempting to legalize pot in California we
could see many other state or the entire nation follow if the outcome is good.

Dustin Hale