All right, let’s get one thing out of the way first: This article has been done before. A college newspaper opinion section writer arguing for the legalization of marijuana is about as cliche as a stoner wearing a drugrug. But at the moment it’s a timely subject.

I say it is timely because this past Thursday, Creighton played host to a “Feds vs. Heads,” debate in the Skutt Ballroom over the legalization of marijuana. Being that the Creightonian you’re holding goes to press a day before this, I’m writing this article not knowing what points were made or who won the debate.

If you were at the debate, I’m sure that some of the things I’m going to argue for in this article will have been brought up. That said, I hope that I can argue for them just as articulately as they were argued for in the debate.

The way I see the argument for marijuana legalization, it can be boiled down to two main arguing points. That’s all. Just two points for why we should have a marijuana revolution in the U.S. of A:

Relax it and tax it bro

Not only is this a hip saying I once saw on a shirt at a record shop, it’s by far the biggest upside to legalizing marijuana. It’s also an arguing point made ad nauseam by almost every pot activist you’ll encounter. But don’t let this annoyance turn you off from the hard facts of the matter.

“Business Week” magazine estimates that a legal marijuana industry could range anywhere between a $45 to 110 billion dollar a year industry. This could help foster the economic growth needed to pull our economy out of the gutter it’s been in for far too long. It would simultaneously provide thousands of desperately needed jobs and help cut into the awful unemployment rate that so many people have liked to argue about lately.

In addition, taxing marijuana would be a huge revenue boost for our federal government, which as you might have heard from the thousands upon thousands of political ads over the past month, has something of a deficit issue. The current deficit is $16,232,607,960,384 as of 7:11 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 4th, 2012 … to be exact.

That’s a big number. Then again, check out these big numbers: $40 to 100 billion. This range is the estimated amount that “Business Week” predicts marijuana taxation would bring in to our federal government.

The American people have made it abundantly clear this election season that they want to balance the budget without cutting Medicare, Social Security, or defense spending, all while not raising taxes. In other words we want to have our cake and eat it too.

Wouldn’t you know it, we kind-of-sort-of-can. And make the cake taste better in the process! Taxing marijuana likely wouldn’t add anything to current taxes and could go on to help pay down our ridiculous debt or help fund Social Security or Medicare.

All we have to do is make it legal to smoke a dried up plant.

This is about the time where people that have never smoked marijuana pipe in with, “Well it might bring in more revenue, but it would also increase the amount of money we spend on health care in this country by causing health problems in its users.” In the words of Dwight Shrute, “FALSE.”

In study upon study, marijuana has been found to cause only minimal health problems among users. An online Harvard medical article concludes that regular marijuana use has, “never been conclusively proven to cause forms of respiratory cancer,” like, say, the perfectly legal American tobacco habit has. And where it does have the ability to cause infections, weaken the immune system and bring out hidden psychological problems, “Business Week” again concludes that marijuana would not have anywhere near the medical or social costs that tobacco and alcohol do.

That said, we’ve moved too far from the original argument; on to my second point.

Peace Dude

Legalizing marijuana would help decrease the amount of violence currently taking place just south of our border. The importation of illegal marijuana and other drugs to the United States has created a monster in Mexico, resulting anywhere from 40,000 to 50,000 total deaths since 2006, according to numbers from the Mexican government.

I’ll say that once more, for emphasis. 40,000 to 50,000 deaths. Numbers like that are hard to fathom.

To put that number into an American perspective, about 6,600 service members have given their lives in the U.S. combined efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past decade.

This is one of the very dark sides of black market economics. But when close to 17 million Americans smoke or have smoked marijuana, according to a statistic from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, someone is going to be willing to supply the demand.

The Mexican drug cartels have filled this void, being more than willing to wage war for a market that is estimated to bring in anywhere from 13 to 45 billion dollars annually to their illegal organizations.

That said, it is important to note that large portions of this revenue comes from drugs other than marijuana: cocaine, meth and heroin, for example.

Still, the violence the U.S. could help by legalizing marijuana is a no-brainer. Not to mention the likely decrease in gang violence that would occur within our own border.

The further and further I get into this article, the more frustrated I become.

I can’t tell you how insane it drives me to see such senseless violence. Or to see our government willingly turn down billions in tax revenue that could be used to fund education or social services, just so we can feel self righteous about how we don’t allow “that sort of stuff,” in our country. (Or state. The words Omaha and gambling come to mind, but that’s another overdone debate for another day).

I honestly think that a main reason why people often don’t take marijuana legalization seriously is because of the individuals who represent it. As Nietzsche once said, “We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the way in which it has been expressed.” Too often, marijuana legalization advocates prove this point.

So keep this quote in mind the next time that annoying stoner friend of yours once again strikes up the overdone, “They should just legalize it maaaaaan,” conversation. Being that this is the bizzarro land of Creighton University where a college student body is a conservative majority and people don’t have marijuana smoking friends, maybe you’re not used to such annoying arguments. Nonetheless, don’t let the stupidity that often accompanies marijuana debates deceive you. It comes with the territory, so don’t let it trick you into dismissing marijuana legalization as nothing more than some pipe dream for millions of burnt out stoners. It really does have the ability to do some awesome things.

If you dig deeper into the benefits for yourself, I think you might agree.