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Legalization is the process of removing alegal prohibition against something which is currently not legal.
Legalization is a process often applied to what are regarded, by those working towards legalization, asvictimless crimes, of which one example is the consumption ofillegal drugs (seedrug legalization).
Legalization should be contrasted withdecriminalization, 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 oflibertarianism support legalization of what they regard as victimless crimes, such asrecreational drug and alcohol use,gun ownership, andprostitution.
InU. S. immigration context, the term "legalization" is colloquially used to refer to a process whereby a person illegally present in the country can obtainlawful permanent residence. Since 1929, the US law has provided the legalization procedure known asregistry, 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 theDREAM Act.
