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Should we legalize certain behaviors for their potential economic benefit?

I recently read several stories from California suggesting it would be a good idea to legalize the use of marijuana because, in doing so, the state government will generate millions of dollars.

It is a solid argument. In fact, in Colorado the legalization of medicinal marijuana generates millions of dollars in sales every week.

I also heard a similar argument applied to the issue of gay marriages. It seems California plans to generate a very large amount of money by legalizing same-sex marriages.

According to this argument, legalizing marijuana o same-sex marriages will have a positive fiscal effect, because the state government will receive more income for new taxes and, at the same time, the government will save money, due to less crime or persecution of crimes.

This is a very strange argument and there are two main reasons why I don’t like it. First, if we accept that premise that legalizing a behavior currently illegal would be good to due economic reasons, why then are we still debating the legalization of millions of immigrants who want to correct their status, knowing how much they contribute to this country?

Even more, if we say it is OK to legalize the use of marijuana or same-sex marriage because in doing so there will be less felonies or crimes, shouldn’t be even more obvious that the same argument could be applied to the case of millions of undocumented immigrants?

After all, if there are no more undocumented immigrants, the federal government could save who knows how many millions and perhaps billions of dollars, because there will be no need to persecute or deport them, in the same way that California expects to save money legalizing some behaviors.

I want emphasize very clearly, I am not saying that being undocumented in this country is equivalent of consuming narcotics or promoting an alternative lifestyle. What I am pointing out is that same argument could be used in all three cases. However, that’s not the case, and the argument of “more money and less crime” is applied by the government only to selected cases.

There is a second reason why I am against this argument, and it is the fact that it reduces human beings to some kind of ATMs, where there is no longer any consideration about the dignity of the human person as such, and, if the person has any value, it is just because he or she can generate some money.

This reification or objectification of human beings is as disgusting or even more disgusting that any kind of harmful effect the use of a stupefacient may cause or that any potential social changes due to the acceptance of a new lifestyle.

In other words, if at any given time an immigration reform allows millions of people the opportunity to rectify their legal status, my vote is for that law to be approved on the basis of the human dignity of the beneficiaries, and not on the bases of some accounting system.

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