# Legalization

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Process of removing legal prohibitions

"Legalize" redirects here. For the Mr Eazi song, see [Legalize (song)](/source/Legalize_(song)). For the Russian hip hop band of similar spelling, see [Ligalize](/source/Ligalize).

For the process of certifying a document so that it will be recognized by the legal system of a foreign country, see [Document legalization](/source/Document_legalization).

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**Legalization** is the process of removing a [legal](/source/Law) 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](/source/Victimless_crime), of which one example is the consumption of [illegal drugs](/source/Illegal_drug) (see [drug legalization](/source/Drug_legalization)).

Legalization should be contrasted with [decriminalization](/source/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](/source/Libertarianism) support legalization of what they regard as victimless crimes, such as [recreational drug and alcohol use](/source/Recreational_drug_use), [gun ownership](/source/Gun_ownership), and [prostitution](/source/Legalization_of_prostitution).

In [U. S. immigration](/source/Immigration_to_the_United_States) 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](/source/Permanent_residence_(United_States)). Since 1929, the US law has provided the legalization procedure known as [registry](/source/Permanent_residence_(United_States)#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?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Dates_and_numbers#Chronological_items)*] was the [DREAM Act](/source/DREAM_Act).

## See also

Look up ***[legalization](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Special:Search/legalization)*** in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

- [Drug liberalization](/source/Drug_liberalization)

- [Legal prostitution](/source/Legal_prostitution)

- [Legality of cannabis](/source/Legality_of_cannabis)

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-bruno2001_1-0)** Bruno, Andorra (2001-08-22), [" *Immigration: Registry as Means of Obtaining Lawful Permanent Residence (CRS Report for Congress)*](http://congressionalresearch.com/RL30578/document.php?2study=Immigration+Registry+as+Means+of+Obtaining+Lawful+Permanent+Residence), Congressional Research Service

1. **[^](#cite_ref-holtzman2015_2-0)** Holtzman, Alexander Thomas (2015-01-01), *A Modest Proposal: Legalize Millions of Undocumented Immigrants with the Change of a Single Statutory Date*, [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2139/ssrn.2561911](https://doi.org/10.2139%2Fssrn.2561911), [S2CID](/source/S2CID_(identifier)) [152827972](https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:152827972), [SSRN](/source/SSRN_(identifier)) [2561911](https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2561911)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Legalization](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalization) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalization?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.