We, as tax payers and workers, give some of our paychecks to the government each week to support their programs, and although at times it feels awful getting our money taken away, we understand that it goes towards a good cause, or at least we hope that is the case.

There are some things worth putting money into, but the money spent to fight The War on Drugs is simply absurd. For starters, it is arguable that this so called war is a good thing, but that is only if we are speaking about the more serious drugs. But when it comes down to a drug like marijuana, is it really worth it? Did you know that U.S. taxpayers, as a whole, pay approximately ten billion dollars annually on marijuana prohibition costs, to arrest more than 853,000 individuals per year? Does this not seem a little dramatic? There are more important things to worry about.

Marijuana is the most commonly used drug in the United States, and studies have shown that 11.5 percent, more than 25 million, have smoked marijuana within the last year, so is the war on drugs really doing anything? Is our money really being well spent? The answer is of course debatable, but the fact is, just because marijuana is illegal does not mean people stop doing it. You are completely naive if you think the the law is the only reasons people do things or not. Think about it, people do not choose to not use heroine because it is illegal, people choose not to use heroine because they understand how bad it is for your health, and how immediately addictive it is.

While on the topic of addiction, this raises more questions, is marijuana addictive? Are these marijuana addiction treatments actually useful? A study done over the course of three years in which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology followed 4,045 psychosis free people. They reached a conclusion that proved marijuana smokers are three times more likely to develop psychotic symptoms compared to non marijuana smokers. But most of these studies prove nothing about marijuana addictions, so therefor, no one can truly claim that marijuana addiction treatments serve any purpose what so ever.

Data collected in 2011 shows that 22.6 percent of high school seniors in the U.S. had used marijuana in the past thirty days, compared to the smaller amount of 18.7 percent who smoked cigarettes. This should not be a surprise to anyone though, seriously! Of course more younger people try marijuana over cigarettes, but maybe its because they know its the safer option. Claiming that marijuana is safe is simply opinion based, but when comparing the safeness of the two, marijuana and tobacco, it is evident which one is safer.

U.S. taxpayers should not have to give their money in support of a stupid war on drugs, and some silly marijuana addiction treatment programs, especially when we all know much too well, nothing changes because of it. The only thing that happens is that it causes more crime. It is similar to prohibition in a sense, when you take something away from the people, the more problems you are left with. If we are going to waste money on something, we should put money towards trying to shut down the tobacco companies, because they are a bunch of murderers. But we know the government will not ever try and do that, you know, since they make so much money off taxing it. But have they ever thought of legalizing marijuana, taxing it, and how it would lower the crime rate? Or is that too logical?