Cannabis in California In this essay I will explore the positive and negative effects of

The legalization of the drug marijuana is a hot topic nowadays. Many people want this substance to be legalized and regularly available like cigarettes. But what some people do not know are the serious health risks involved when using marijuana. There is a lot more to marijuana than just smoking it.

Legalizing marijuana is a concept that can potentially benefit the public as well as the local economies. There has been a nationwide debate on whether marijuana should be legalized or not. The major consensus is that marijuana is not only bad for one’s health, but it is also dangerous to the community. These allegations are not true. Marijuana actually has health benefits that most people overlook. The following essay will address these health benefits in an attempt to present this concept in a way that the audience can better understand how legalizing marijuana can beneficial to an individual health, how it can give an increase to the economy.

Marijuana, a substance that was used frequently during the colonial times, has taken a social downfall in recent times. Although it is still illegal to possess or use for any means by federal law, states like California and Arizona have taken steps in the other direction.

The legalization of marijuana will lead to a boost to the economy. With the United States being trillions in debt, an increase in tax money would be a big help to lower the national debt. Colorado, one of the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational and medicinal uses, is showing valuable data of an increase in tax money, “In 2015, Colorado collected more than $135 million in taxes and fees on medicinal and recreational marijuana. Sales totaled over $996 million” (Krishna, Mrinalini). Now, Colorado is joined by seven other states, Washington, Oregon, California, Alaska, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada, in the full legalization of marijuana. With these states joining with Colorado, the United States is seeing sales “[grow] by 30%, to 6.1 billion, in 2016 and a projected 20.1 billion in 2021” (Krishna, Mrinalini). With that in mind, these sales are shared among only eight states, add another forty-two states and the rates could surpass the trillions. Considering the evidence, the act of not legalizing marijuana would be foolish.

Legalization of marijuana is an important issue; most people recognize it as “harmful and addictive,” from the essay “Marijuana Should Not Be Legalized,” while others regard the ban on marijuana as ineffective, expensive, and unjust (1). According to Senator Bernie Sanders, “too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use. That’s wrong.” The ban is unjust for Americans because it is a complete waste of our tax dollars to continue criminalizing citizens for marijuana use. Legalization of marijuana in every state will be beneficial; for our economy, medical value and breakthroughs, lowering crime rate, aiding people who are victims of drug abuse, and more. The following paragraphs will explain further.

Finally, the main reason millions of Americans want marijuana decriminalized is the positive effects it could have on our despicable economy. First off, decriminalizing marijuana will prevent users from going to prison which will save all us tax payers a whole lot of money. In California alone, the cost of marijuana enforcement can be estimated at over $200 million per year (Gieringer). The money is being spent on state prison, jail costs, court and probation, felony arrests, misdemeanor

“According to the Colorado Department of Revenue, the regulated marijuana market generated more than $156 million in state tax revenue and license fees in FY 2015-2016.” (The Impact of Legalization in Colorado,2017). The amount recognized in the quote was not including local taxes. The taxes generated from recreational marijuana use can be used for the state of Colorado to spend on many valuable things in the state. Such as schools, public transportation, or natural parks. This benefits the economy by creating more money for the state to spend and putting more money into circulation.

Having marijuana legalized would bring out a whole new smell to California neighborhoods. Proposition 64 allows the legalization of recreational use of marijuana to adults 21 and over, while changing the criminal penalty with marijuana related crimes. A problem happened before with proposition 19 in 2010 where many opposed the “Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act.” The times have changed with the idea of marijuana being a “gateway drug” and the majority now are supporting for proposition 64 to pass.

Many states have legalized cannabis, for example, Colorado has already seen many positive results. The economy has been in an upwards advantage with raising over ten million taxes from the retail sale of cannabis within the first four months. They will use the first forty million of the tax collection to better the public schools in the area as well as improving the youth campaigns about substance abuse. Marijuana had not only raised more money for the state is has also saved millions of dollar in a single year.

Marijuana is not completely legal anywhere, it is just decriminalized. This plant would replace many of the current medicines and treatments that we as a society currently have which inclines me to believe that is a big reason why it is illegal in the first place. The big pharmaceutical companies would lose out on a lot of money if their customers switched over to a more natural alternative. Personally, I have a strong belief that marijuana is no worse than cigarettes and alcohol, I would go as far to say marijuana is better than majority of the controlled substances that are currently legal and drugs recommended for medicinal use. I also strongly believe that marijuana is addictive just like any other drug, and to criminally punish those who use is just wrong. Drug users aren’t criminals for just using the drug, they are just in dire need of help. Decriminalization would relieve these wasted funds on a drug war that cannot be won. These replenished resources could in turn be used for rehabilitation centers and programs creating awareness on the harmful effects of

Despite my traditional liberal stance, I personally don't think that the legalization of marijuana in California would be the best idea. To be fair, I don’t think other drugs such as tobacco and alcohol should be legal either but let’s focus on the cons of legal marijuana. In the article, “Is Legalizing Marijuana a Dopey Idea?”, Ella Jameson indicates that marijuana tempers with your memory processing and emotions. This is alone a crucial detail when noting the majority of users are still adolescents in school. Secondly, Jameson mentions the changing attitudes towards people who smoke marijuana, implying that students like Jordan will find it really easy to justify how much they use, leading to mental addiction and abuse. Thirdly, the

Marijuana or Cannabis is one of the bused drugs in America and the rest of the world. Interesting accumulating evidence show that the significant negative impact of this drug outweighs the positive effects. However, the medical benefits of the drug seem on the process of chemical compounds as compared to the drug itself. Medical debates show that chemical compound in marijuana are the problem as compared to the plant. The said chemical compound affects the mental and physical health of the persons abusing this drug. There have been traditional efforts to control the use of marijuana through legislation laws, (Crick, Haase, & Bewley-Taylor, 2013). However, in the recent past the efforts and the laws are being lifted to relax the implementation of the same legislations and the population is responding fast in accepting the legalization of the use of marijuana. The aim of this paper is to discuss how lifting on the laws of the said drug indicate adverse tolerance of Cannabis among populations. The paper will also discuss impact of legalization marijuana on the safety, security and overall quality of human life. Also, the paper will analyses the effect of relaxation of the laws controlling this drug to other hard core drugs such as cocaine, heroin and meth-amphetamines among others.

A number of movements to legalize marijuana have been gaining attention lately. Currently there are 14 states where marijuana is legal for medical use (medicalmarijuana). 41% of U.S. citizens believe marijuana should be legalized (drugpolicy) but others are still concerned about health damage. American society has lost the war against marijuana, and that's okay. We should stop wasting time and money trying to reverse history and instead legalize both medical and recreational use of this mild narcotic widely seen as no more harmful than alcohol.

Colorado alone raised about 100 million in tax revenue. This is much more than it was expected. The marijuana industry helps create new jobs, this means the economy is better. All the money that is collected from the sale of the plant creates new schools, makes roads safer, and overall it makes the state better. Bob Marley once said “herb is the healing of the nation, alcohol is the destruction” This makes sense because cannabis makes a person feel relaxed and have more appreciation of ones surroundings unlike alcohol which makes a person very

less dangerous than tobacco and people smoke less of it at a time. Or you can