Harrah’s Entertainment: Hitting the Crm Jackpot

The drug generally isn’t more harmful than alcohol or tobacco if used in moderation. Most doctors would agree that it’s not very harmful if used in moderation. It’s only when you abuse the drug that problems start to occur. But isn’t abuse of almost any bad substance a problem? If you abuse alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes, or even pizza, health problems are sure to follow. Would you want the government limiting how much coffee you can drink or how much cheesecake you take in? Most doctors believe that marijuana is no more addictive that alcohol or tobacco. * Limiting the use of the drug intrudes on personal freedom. Even if the drug is shown to be harmful, isn’t it the right of every person to choose what harms him or her? Marijuana use is generally thought of as a “victimless crime”, in that only the user is being harmed. You can’t legislate morality when people disagree about what’s considered “moral”. * There are medical benefits for numerous patients. As detailed in the related links section, there are a number of medical benefits of marijuana, most notably in the treatment of patients undergoing chemotherapy. Others believe it helps in the treatment of depression.

Certain states like California have brought initiatives to legalize the drug for at least medicinal purposes. * It could be a source of additional tax revenues. An enormous amount of money is raised through government taxation of alcohol, cigarettes, and other “sins”. The legalization of marijuana would create another item that could be taxed. I’m sure the government would have no problem spending all that extra money. * Drug dealers (including some terrorists) would lose most or all of their business.Perhaps the biggest opponents of legalizing drugs are the drug dealers themselves. They make their enormous sums of money because of the absence of competition and the monstrous street prices that come from the increased risk. Legalization would lower prices and open competition; thus, drug cartels (that might include terrorists) would lose all or some of their business. * Police and court resources would be freed up for more serious crimes .Many consider the War on Drugs an expensive failure. Resources for DEA, FBI, and border security are only the tip of the iceberg. You must add in the cost of police officers, judges, public defenders, prosecutors, juries, court reporters, prison guards, and so on.

Legalization of marijuana would free up those people to concentrate on more important things like terrorism, harder drugs, rape, murder, and so on. In addition, an already overloaded civil court docket would be improved; thus, the wait time for other legitimate court cases would be reduced. * The FDA or others could regulate the quality and safety of drugs .Many drug users become sick or could even die because of poorly-prepared products. After all, there is nothing to regulate what is sold and no way to sue anyone for product liability. By bringing marijuana into the legitimate business world, you can oversee production and regulate sales. * Like sex, alcohol, or cigarettes, marijuana is one of life’s little pleasures for some people .All of us have our guilty pleasures. They are part of what makes life worth living. Several of these little pleasures–coffee, sex, alcohol, cigarettes, etc.–are potentially harmful if abused. Even legal substances like pizza and donuts can be harmful to a person if not consumed in moderation.

Would you want to give up all these things for the rest of your life? Would you want someone else telling you what you can and can’t have when it is only your body that is affected? * Aside from recreational drug use, Cannabis has several industrial and commercial uses, as over 25,000 products can be made from the crop. The plant used in making marijuana has a ton of alternative uses, including construction & thermal insulation materials, paper, geotextiles, dynamite, composites for autos, and insect repellent. As far back as 1938, Popular Mechanics deemed it the “new billion dollar crop”, as over 25,000 products can be made from it. Unfortunately, the lack of legality in the U.S. and other countries has squashed the growth and development of these products. We shouldn’t limit the use of such a diverse product because one use is found objectionable by some.

* Drug busts often trap young people in a flawed system that turns them into lifelong criminals. Imagine an impressionable teenager who is tired of earning minimum wage, who hates living in a poor ghetto area, or who needs to save money for college. He’s offered the opportunity to make some decent money simply carrying some drugs across town. Then he’s busted. He’s thrown in jail as part of a mandatory sentence. There, he spends his time and becomes friends with many other delinquents. He gets meaner in jail since he has to defend himself in a rough crowd. When he gets out of prison, his job and college prospects are slammed because of a felony record and/or disruption of school. This just makes the resumption of a normal crime-free life all the more difficult. Strapped for cash, he joins some of his new friends in a greater crime like robbery. Suddenly, you have someone who has started down the road of being a lifelong criminal. This story may seem farfetched, but it is all too real for some. The legalization of marijuana would remove another temptation that could lead a young impressionable individual down the wrong road.