Legalization of Marijuana Sociology Paper Essay Example
Ethical Issues of the Legalization of Marijuana
SOC120: Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility
The ethical issues that are presented regarding the legalization of marijuana are:
Can an action that has no victim be considered a crime? Doesn't the constitution give us the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, if marijuana and its effects make one happy, do we not have the right to pursue it? Would legalization truly cause more people to smoke marijuana? Is marijuana truly as “bad” as it is made out to be?
Marijuana being criminalized opens a huge door to the black market enriching criminal activity, does the harm that marijuana may cause to recreational users truly outweigh the presence of an underground marijuana criminal ring? Since marijuana has proven medical uses, can we justly ban it because some people use it for recreational purposes? Isn't it morally hypocritical for us to legalize and even glorify the recreational use of alcohol and legalize (though not glorify) the use of tobacco, both of which have proven death rates yearly associated with them, yet we oppose the use of marijuana, why the moral inconsistency? Is it better to create a new taxable revenue by legalizing marijuana to rescue a bankrupt government than it is to maintain our moral opposition of recreational drug use? Utilitarianism, tells us that A natural way to see if an act is the right thing to do (or the wrong thing to do) is to look at its results, or consequences. Utilitarianism argues that, given a set of choices, the act we should choose is that which produces the best results for the greatest number affected by that choice, (Mosser, K. 2010).
Therefore if the most number of people could benefit from the legalization of marijuana then it would resolve the problem of whether or not marijuana should be or should not be legalized for medicinal or any other purposes. Relativism in turn says that if it is right for me, it is ok, if it is right for
SOC120: Introduction to Ethics & Social Responsibility
The ethical issues that are presented regarding the legalization of marijuana are:
Can an action that has no victim be considered a crime? Doesn't the constitution give us the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, if marijuana and its effects make one happy, do we not have the right to pursue it? Would legalization truly cause more people to smoke marijuana? Is marijuana truly as “bad” as it is made out to be?
Marijuana being criminalized opens a huge door to the black market enriching criminal activity, does the harm that marijuana may cause to recreational users truly outweigh the presence of an underground marijuana criminal ring? Since marijuana has proven medical uses, can we justly ban it because some people use it for recreational purposes? Isn't it morally hypocritical for us to legalize and even glorify the recreational use of alcohol and legalize (though not glorify) the use of tobacco, both of which have proven death rates yearly associated with them, yet we oppose the use of marijuana, why the moral inconsistency? Is it better to create a new taxable revenue by legalizing marijuana to rescue a bankrupt government than it is to maintain our moral opposition of recreational drug use? Utilitarianism, tells us that A natural way to see if an act is the right thing to do (or the wrong thing to do) is to look at its results, or consequences. Utilitarianism argues that, given a set of choices, the act we should choose is that which produces the best results for the greatest number affected by that choice, (Mosser, K. 2010).
Therefore if the most number of people could benefit from the legalization of marijuana then it would resolve the problem of whether or not marijuana should be or should not be legalized for medicinal or any other purposes. Relativism in turn says that if it is right for me, it is ok, if it is right for