And to be more specific in regards to our home state, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons compared to $5.7 billion on the UC system and Cal State colleges in 2011.
In my opinion, prolonging the War on Drugs would be foolish. I think that this war cannot be won until we decriminalize drugs, mainly marijuana. In this way, we would not have to continue imprisoning people based on drug offenses like possession of drugs, which I see is mostly harmless to others; I see it as a waste of money to imprison these people instead of spending it on other departments including education. There are also a number of other benefits to ending the War on Drugs, including reducing violence in Mexico. Anyways, the budget distribution affects many of us who plan to attend UCs. With rising tuition costs, I think that our state government should allocate more money towards education rather than incarcerating citizens who happen to get caught with drugs.
Should we legalize marijuana? Should the U.S. continue or end the War on Drugs? Will the large amount of prisoners affect the disparity between the upper- and lower-classes?
7 comments:
I think we should legalize marijuana while continuing to keep possession, manufacturing and sales of other drugs illegal. If we legalized marijuana, we would have more tax revenue that we could use to spend on the education system. It would not be beneficial to legalize all drugs because it would be extremely detrimental in the long run because if some of these harder drugs were not illegal, more people would be using drugs which would not be healthy or productive for society.
I don't think I know enough about the War on Drugs and the benefits and costs of it and options such as the legalization of marijuana to assert whether to end it or not, but I think the discrepancy in the amount of money spent on prisoners is very absurd.
I agree with Lexi that legalizing marijuana would be a great benefit while keeping other narcotics illegal By doing so we could greatly decrease the overcrowding problem in prison and then use that money to better fund education. If more kids are at school, there are less on the streets committing crime.
While I do understand the impertinence of having government detainment facilities for criminals, I find it ridiculous that prisoners in jail cost the country money. It's like, there are thousands of people that commit illegal acts and end up going to jail, where they are housed, clothed, and fed meals for free. To me, that sounds like a pretty good deal for criminals. And I'm sure a few homeless people wouldn't mind living off government money for a few months or so.
Perhaps encouraging/promoting work-parole situations would be less costly for the country than putting prisoners into jail. The fact that our country values the living standards of prisoners more than the quality of our education saddens me.
I agree with Lexi, Mitchell, and Jackie-- hopefully, legalizing marijuana will decrease government spending on prisons, and increase government revenue from marijuana taxation.
I’m still not sure about legalizing marijuana because of its long-term effects. I agree that it is helpful to many patients and even gain revenues from it. However, I disagree that it should be owned or used by someone who does not need it for medical purposes. Even if it is restricted to medical patients, it is likely that it wont be implemented.
On the other hand, most of these sentences are too severe for a drug crime. Some states treat painkillers as if they are hard drugs. These severe drug laws have consequences such as imbalance in the distribution of funds for other public programs/ facilities. Instead of focusing on unnecessary laws, I think the government should invest more on education. It will be less likely for people to use hard drugs if they are well educated and have more options to succeed. Moreover, putting people in jail for drug use does not prevent the cause of the problem. Public programs that can help addicted users might be better than a prison cell that costs thousands of money.
I also agree with Lexi and Mitchell that legalizing marijuana would ne super beneficial for the United States. Business Weekly wrote an article and stated that "total spending on marijuana may add up to $45 billion to $110 billion a year." That is a lot of money that the US could spend. About the War on Drugs issue, I think that continuing it can help, but arresting people with marijuana and putting them in jail, to me, seems unnecessary. It's the people who have heavy narcotics that are hurting peoples lives, including their own, that should be put in jail.
To a certain extent, I do believe that marijuana should be legalized as it would bring in more tax revenue that could be used on education. However, I feel as if marijuana is legalized that it would send a message from the California government saying that it condones the use of drugs which is a message that I do not support. I don't believe that ending the War on Drugs would decrease the violence in Mexico because with less American involvement could cause increased cartel action which would not decrease violence.
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