Specific Goal: I would like to show that by legalizing marijuana, not only will the government be saving millions of dollars but thousands of sick and dieing individuals will have it available for medical use. Introduction.
I. How many of you have ever smoked weed? According to the 1998 National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse survey 55% of graduating high school seniors have tried it at least once.
II. How many of you have friends or relatives suffering from AIDS, glaucoma, or cancer? Image how much legalization would help these people in relaxing their symptoms and causing the side effect of hunger allows them to eat when their body still tells them "no".
III. How much do we spend a year in Drug enforcement? According to the DEA, the national government spends around $30 billion dollars annually. The current drug-war strategy is; 75% for "interaction" and enforcement, 15% for education and prevention, 10% for treatment.
Propositional Statement: Outlawing marijuana is a severe problem in the United States. Due to the fact that the government spends so much money and millions of suffering patients are not permitted to acquire weed legally, I believe the only solution to the problem of it being illegal is to make it legal.
Body.
I. The first part of the problem is that so many of us use it, that the government has to spend billions of dollars a year trying to counter act our desires.
A. Outlawing marijuana is a problem because of the amount of people who use it.
1. Nearly 1 in 4 of prisoners are in jail due to marijuana use. (Justice Policy Inst).
2. 55% of high school seniors say they have tried it. (1998 National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse survey).
B. Outlawing marijuana is a problem because it cost so much.
1. Imprisoning 458,000 people costs our government $9 billion annually.
2. $10 billion a year in prosecutions.
3. $10 billion a year in local and federal law enforcement.
4. $19 billion for 2002 for anti-drug budget ( High Times Magazine ).
