Out of the Recession...Out of Debt??

The legalization of marijuana has become an increasingly popular subject of conversation nowadays, with pot use increasing in every single demographic. Our government has shown strong distaste for the small plant, but some have shown that pot could be our country's way out of not only our recession, but out of debt. The global war on "drugs" has taken the control of a substance no more harmless to one than alcohol, and given control of it to crime syndicates and drug lords across the world, increasing the number of those incarcerated (tax dollars spent) and doing everything to prevent the use of the now seemingly harmless drug.

"The racial disparities are appalling. As Michelle Alexander so eloquently shows in her new book, "The New Jim Crow," a drug conviction automatically makes a person a second-class citizen who can be legally discriminated against in housing and employment, denied school loans, and barred for life from serving on juries, accessing public benefits and even voting. While African Americans make up only about 13 percent of the U.S. population and about 15 percent of drug users, they make up about 38 percent of those arrested for drug law violations and a mind-boggling 59 percent of those convicted for drug law violations.

Like Prohibition did for alcohol, drug prohibition is also enriching organized crime. Instead of regulating marijuana to control who can access it, policymakers have ceded control of the $400-billion-a-year global drug market to crime syndicates and thugs.

In Mexico, where parts of the country are like Chicago under Al Capone on steroids, 28,000 people have died since President Calderón launched a war three years ago against well-armed, well-funded drug trafficking organizations. The U.S. government doesn't report its prohibition-related deaths, but law enforcement officers, drug offenders and civilians die every day in our country's war on drugs, too."

Is it finally time to really considering legalizing what was once thought to be the worst thing to come to our country? It seems that the tax revenue from the sales alone will help our country's economic growth in huge ways.