Today in America, the war on drugs has grown significantly. Debates over the legalization of marijuana have gone of for years with no resolution. Though marijuana is a drug, the benefits of legalizing it would be more beneficial than the consequences. The legalization would be a reformative social movement, but would be beneficial in the long run (Macionis. (2004).Society: The Basics. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.). A 1996 survey shows that an estimated 9.5 million Americans, age 25 years and under, have used marijuana. For over 26, about 8.9 million have used. Statistics also show that of the nations local police and sheriffs departments, 80% of their officers primarily work with only drug law enforcement. 55% of state officers do the same. Instead of placing the most emphasis on minor smoking of marijuana, our officers should be putting more attention into greater dangers, such as traffic safety, abuse, and other more serious crimes. The FBI reported that by 1996, arrests had increased to 9.9% of all combined arrests. Drug offenders, primarily marijuana, now constitute for about 23% of all prison populations in 1995 (Faley, Jonathan. (1997). Fact Sheet: Drug Data Summary. White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. 1-4. Retrieved from http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov). Due to this, the nation's prison population has risen 5.2% (Gilliard, Darrell. (1998). Prisoners in 1997. Bureau of Justice Statistics. 1. Retrieved from http://www.marijuana.com). Federal prisons have now resorted to using smaller, local state jails to house serious criminals, and even then both state and federal prisons are overwhelmed with the capacity of people that are incarcerated. The country's prison population consists of these minor offenders, keeping murders, rapists, and other criminals walking on our streets, continuing to threaten our citizens. Marijuana arrests now exceed arrests for murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault combined.
