More People Want To Legalize Marijuana Than Want To Keep It Illegal

A new poll shows that more people in the United States would like to see marijuana legalized and taxed than would like to keep it illegal and continue to waste money on the failed "war on drugs". It seems that a plurality of Americans realize that we have already wasted over a trillion dollars on the drug war and accomplished nothing except to fill our prisons with non-violent drug users, when we could be taxing the gentle drug (it is not nearly as dangerous as other legal drugs) and helping all levels of government solve their fiscal problems.

Why won't the government even consider legalizing marijuana? Why can't we even have a real debate over it? Could it be because the "war on drugs" is nearly as lucrative as the illegal drug trade (just for a different set of people)? The truth is that too many people and organizations make too much money off the drug war -- even though they have failed to stop, or even slow down, the flow of illegal drugs into this country. It is a repeat of the failure of prohibition, when government couldn't stop illegal alcohol from entering the country -- and thus created a lucrative and dangerous underground trade that made the criminals rich.

Marijuana is not physically addictive, and no one can overdose and die from using it. It is as safe as a drug can be. There is no reason why we shouldn't take the growth and sales out of the hands of criminals by legalizing it. It would not only create many new jobs in the growth, distribution, and sales of marijuana, but it would also support new taxes at all levels of government. Governments could be making money instead of spending it.

The poll I talked about in the first paragraph is the Rasmussen Poll. Here are the numbers from that poll:

Legalize & tax marijuana...............47%
Keep marijuana illegal...............42%
Clueless (don't know)...............10%