The Government Needs Money?

In my City there were announcements of cut back in the police department and  the correctional department. No money... what!
If they legalized medical marijuana and decriminalized small possession to misdemeanors they would have so much money ... shoot, they would probably be able to start filling their own pockets again.
It's time the Government started getting tougher on violent crimes and started fining (making money) on those lesser crimes. And those that can't pay their fines can get a hours towards community services like filling pot holes, fixing and painting sidewalks, etc. Basically beautifying the city.
The Government would save billions in just the marijuana issue. They could concentrate on harder drugs ... like alcohol (LOL). But seriously to get arrested for possession of, lets say, an ounce of weed where its not shown that it is for distribution/sale (I believe in control/taxing) is ridiculous. To spend time in local jail, the courts, then prison, then release monitoring and everything involved in between for a minor infraction of being a marijuana user is just throwing money out of the window.
If you do your research you could find out the total of people incarcerated or monitored in the US is upwards of 7,000,000 (more than seven million by the Bureau of Justice Statistics) and that the US has the largest inmate population in the world. Lets say that half of those 7 million are there for drug related offenses (opinion vary from 45 to 60%). It is widely argued about the severity of the offenses because of no standards as to minimum quantities but it rounds about to 50% of those incarcerated for drug offenses qualify in the minimum severity (1g [a joint] to 1 ounce [28g]). We are talking about 1.75 million people nationwide.
Now imagine that the average cost of an inmate is around $50,000 per year not including court cost, transportation or anything else but housing, that means that there is a waste of about $80 million dollars by my layman's calculations. I think I am low balling these numbers because I don't know the costs but you get my meaning.
I can't believe that we are having cutbacks of our law enforcement in times when we need them most. With the economy being as bad as it is concerning employment and high cost of living people are not acting like they used to act. But that's another story.
Stay safe.