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Legalization is the process of removing a legal prohibition against something which is currently not legal.

Legalization is a process often applied to what are regarded, by those working towards legalization, as victimless crimes , of which one example is the consumption of illegal drugs (see drug legalization ).

Legalization should be contrasted with decriminalization , which removes criminal charges from an action, whereas legalization also adds in regulation, such as a minimum age to legally purchase, poses and use a drug like cannabis.

Proponents of libertarianism support legalization of what they regard as victimless crimes, such as recreational drug and alcohol use , gun ownership , and prostitution .

In U. S. immigration context, the term "legalization" is colloquially used to refer to a process whereby a person illegally present in the country can obtain lawful permanent residence . Since 1929, the US law has provided the legalization procedure known as registry , which simply requires the applicant to prove that he has continuously resided in the country since before a certain specified "registry date" (originally, 1921; presently, 1972), and is not inadmissible on other grounds (criminal history, etc. ). ^{[1] [2]} One legalization proposal that was widely discussed recently ^{[ when? ]} was the DREAM Act .

See also [ edit ]

Look up legalization in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Drug liberalization
• Legal prostitution
• Legality of cannabis

Notes [ edit ]