Marijuana Should Be Legalized: a Legal Smoke?

Over 70% of Canadians approve of legalizing marijuana.   Hemp has been banned in Canada since 1923. Until the 20th century, hemp produced most of the world’s paper, clothing, textiles, and ropes. In fact, it was once the largest agricultural crop in the world. Oddly enough, the first law to do with cannabis was telling farmers they must grow it. So, who in their right mind would make hemp illegal? It all started with articles in the U.S.A. claiming African-Americans and Mexicans smoked marijuana, played devil’s music, and disrespected white people. This led to having to buy stamps to legally grow hemp, but the American government did not give any out. After bringing the law into question over several years, different governments decided there should be no criminal penalty attached to marijuana. Nevertheless, marijuana still remains illegal. There are many reasons as to why marijuana should be legal. By legalizing marijuana, our government would take in more tax money, more materials could be made from hemp, and marijuana would be safer for users.

Over $170 billion is how much money our Canadian government will gain if hemp is decriminalized.   Let’s break that down. Cannabis business in BC alone is about $34 billion a year, street value, according to www.rxdirect2u.com. Tourist trade in the cannabis business in Canada adds up to about $90 billion per year.   About 600 000 Canadian citizens have been indicted for personal use of marijuana and 30 000 arrests are made each year.   That’s $500 million for annual drug law enforcement, another $500 million for legal fees, and $50 000 a year for each incarcerated offender.   Additionally, we’ll save $6 billion by cutting capital expenditures in wood pulp production by three-four quarters.   Quadruple the potential volume of cellulose fibre. With about $15-20 billion in annual exports of newsprint and wood pulp, that adds up to about $60 billion.   Since it will not be in that much demand we’ll divide the present number by...