Paper Summary:

This paper supports decriminalization rather than legalization of marijuana and bases its rationale on the assumption that legalization is politically untenable. While the criminal elements of the marijuana industry are examined they are examined in the light that the marijuana industry would not generate the profit margins that the criminal industry usually demands if marijuana were decriminalized.

From the Paper:

"The legality of marijuana in Canada seems to be more of a matter of legal semantics than any pragmatic change in legal practice. As one pundit notes, "Officially, possession of cannabis is a crime and first-time offenders face a maximum sentence of a $1,000 fine or six months in jail, or both...Unofficially, the law is in tatters...(Bergman, 2003, para.3). It is this tenuous status quo that receives the most criticism while the debate about legalizing/decriminalizing or toughening/enforcing marijuana statutes receives the most intellectual attention. The polarity on either side of the marijuana debate acknowledges that the policy as it currently exists, is unsustainable. The following research and argument is intended to support the decriminalization of marijuana as opposed to the legalizing of marijuana. "

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