Five Reasons Marijuana Should be Legal – Ryan O’Bryan’s List – Reason Five

#5 - A Lower Crime Rate

Overcrowding has been a problem in our nation's prisons for some time now and I think much of that has to do with the amount of marijuana related arrests. The most recent data available from the FBI shows that in 2010, there were over 1.6 million drug-related arrests, 52.1% of those were marijuana related.

Think about it like this, every person who spent time in jail for either selling, manufacturing, or simply possessing marijuana took up space that could be used for murderers, thieves, and other "bad" people that need to be in jail for the safety of the community. At the very least, legalizing marijuana brings down the nation's crime rate with simple mathematics.

I would also like to think (and I have no information to back this up) that legalizing marijuana would also result in a drop in other crimes people may commit in order to obtain the money required to get their buzz on. While I assume theft and prostitution rates for "harder" drugs is higher (have you ever heard anyone be called a "weed-whore"?), I have to think there are those who will stoop to those level to get high.