Child rapist Ernie Begaye walked free after admitting to assaulting three young girls in 2012.

John Knock will die behind bars for marijuana-related conspiracy charges, indicted in 1994 as a first time offender without a history of drug use or violence.

Even with marijuana legalization on the rise in the United States, several individuals still face outrageous prosecutions for minor crimes, while violent offenders see no punishment. No matter your stance on recreational marijuana use, there is no doubt that our legal system is not hard hitting where it needs to be.

Despite widespread claims, marijuana is not a gateway drug, according to the Scientific American. It is also medically beneficial, including in the case of Charlotte Figi. At only 3 months old, she began having seizures. This eventually escalated to over 300 a week, but using marijuana reduced them to only 2 or 3 a month.

The basis for declaring cannabis illegal in the 1900s should also be considered. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, after the Mexican Revolution, southern states received a large amount of immigrants who brought their traditions and culture with them. At the time, this included using marijuana as medicine and a relaxant.

However, many referred to it as “marihuana.” This was a foreign term to US born citizens who already had cannabis in their medicine cabinets and used it frequently.

The media, circulating stories about Mexican immigrants to play on the fears of the public, discussed the disruptive behaviors of Mexicans, including marijuana use. These were claims many people believed, not realizing they were using the same plant. Cannabis became illegal so there were viable excuses to detain Mexican immigrants.

The criminalization of cannabis is essentially a result of the criminalization of Mexican immigrants.

Knowing the racist reasons behind making it illegal and the bias towards marijuana users today, the decriminalization of marijuana would benefit the American people while allowing law enforcement to deal with the more serious crimes.

Legalization abolishes the laws that restrict marijuana use and allows states to tax its sales. Decriminalization reduces the penalties for using marijuana, usually equivalent to a traffic fine. The Americans who are arrested every year for marijuana would be saving taxpayers money by freeing up our prisons for criminal offenses.

Furthermore, decriminalization does not lead to an increase in marijuana use, according to government studies. The places with strict punishment for possession of marijuana are the ones with an increase in its use, and hard drug use is higher among emergency room patients where marijuana is not decriminalized, according to the National Academy Press.

The problems that marijuana criminalization creates cannot be resolved without first eliminating laws that punish recreational use. The severe penalties that nonviolent drug users face are not advantageous to society or its taxpayers. It is time to counter the idea that punishing marijuana use is done for the health and safety of the general public.