Economic Benefits of the Legalization of Marijuana Essay

A. Many prisons are filled with people involved with the use of marijuana whether for its medical benefits or as a recreational drug. If marijuana were legalized, it could be taxed in accordance to other regulated products such as tobacco and alcohol.

Assuming that we are looking for the benefit of the greater good from a utilitarian standpoint the verdict is increasingly PRO-marijuana. But I aim to focus on three main points: firstly; excessive amount of taxpayer’s money is spent to both police and incarcerate marijuana offender. Secondly; there exists conclusive evidence that many positive environmental impacts to the environment, develops from the legalization of marijuana by way of the hemp industry. Finally, multitudinous medicinal benefits abound, countless more are continually being discovered, the totality of which are backed by scientific research. .

For the sake of building off the previous entry, I would like to incorporate a couple of marijuana related legal statistics from Steven Nelson’s article Police Made One Marijuana Arrest Every 42 Seconds in 2012. The Federal Bureau of Investigation released data on the crime figures for drug-related crimes in 2012 and it showed that a staggering 749,825 people were arrested for marijuana related offenses; that is one arrest every 42 seconds. It also accounted for 48.3 percent of all drug arrests. Even with the recent upsurge in public support for the liberation of the drug policy, police arrested the same number of people in 2012 on pot-related charges as they did in 2011. These numbers have led many people to begin forming advocacy groups geared to decriminalize the drug. Dan Riffle, the director of

Every year, 400,000 Americans die of complications caused by tobacco products. Smoking kills more Americans each year than alcohol, crack, heroin, murder, suicide, car accidents, fires, and AIDS all put together. Every week, eight children under the age of eighteen die from alcohol related crashes. Alcohol abuse contributes to almost 50% of all traffic accidents, suicides, and homicides. However, despite the proven dangers of these "socially acceptable" drugs, they are still legal. Marijuana, a much less acceptable drug, is not legal however, despite the fact that research has yet to pin any specific dangers to this drug.

Abraham Lincoln once said "Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man 's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes.” The prohibition of marijuana has proven to be a failure and a waste of resources. In addition, prohibition has hurt society more than it has helped. Also, marijuana can be used as a medicine to treat many life threatening illnesses. The legalization of marijuana will generate enormous tax revenue, reduce crime, and give sick patients a new effective medicine.

Legalizing recreational marijuana will help the United Sates economy by combating the war on drugs. Regulation of the drug will bring money into the state and to the nation as well. Moreover, Clare Howard in his article, Why legalize recreational marijuana states, “America has lost the war on marijuana. The cost to taxpayers has been $1 trillion and has resulted in 40 million arrests. The war on marijuana needs to end like Prohibition ended in 1933 with the country recognizing failed public policy and formulating another plan with reasonable regulations and restrictions… perhaps regulating marijuana like alcohol and keeping it illegal for

The legal status of marijuana in the US has been a subject of controversy since its introduction in (year?). A history of legal prohibition steeped in racism and misunderstanding has only recently given way to rational discussion based on scientific evidence and public health evaluations. Legalizing marijuana would not only be an economic boon for the US and be beneficial for our medical fields, but would also make it safer by introducing regulations and protection for consumers.

Marijuana is the cause of much commotion and debating, as the question of legalization becomes more of an issue. Drugs are a major influential force in countries all over the world today. Legalization is an option that has not had a chance, but really should be given one. Although many people feel that legalizing marijuana would increase the amount of drug use, legalization would benefit for the following reasons: 1)reduction of money spent on law enforcement 2)increase in the countries revenue 3)lessen crime 4)useful in treating certain medical conditions.

The Government should legalize the use of marijuana because of the economic benefits it would offer, The debate over whether the federal government should legalize marijuana has been escalating and states such as Colorado, and Oregon have legalized the use of medical and recreational use of marijuana due to the realization that marijuana could greatly benefit their economies, such as the creation of jobs, tax revenue, and young business leaders. The legalization of marijuana is highly beneficial to the United States government because it will save the government billions of dollars. According to Jeffrey Minron a Harvard economist “If marijuana were legalized, the government would save $7.7 billion dollars annually in law enforcement costs, and it could bring an additional $6.2 billion a year” (3).If the government were to legalize marijuana nationwide, there would be billions of dollars, which could be used to solve actual problems in the United States like education, poverty, Instead, the billions of dollars are being wasted to loosely enforce the ban.

The money market for marijuana today is estimated between ten to forty billion dollars(Ekins, Taxfoundation). All of that money is circulating between drug dealers and growers. Why should criminals be getting all this money, when the people of the United States could be making an honest living on the growth and distribution of legalized marijuana. The Criminal Justice system and the Law Enforcement are being distracted by weed related crimes. In 2010 seven hundred and fifty thousand people were arrested on marijuana related charges(Henchman, Taxfoundation). This takes time away from officers that protect its citizens from criminals doing harm. Instead of helicopters flying over harmless cornfields searching for hidden weed, they could be using that technology for life flight or car chases. There are many alternative options for the open cells that a marijuana dealer would be in, or other places an officer could be, instead of arresting someone for possession of

      There are many ways that marijuana would benefit the economy if legalized. An economy benefits when there is a healthy flow of monies within. This means internal spending by citizens on items of their choice. Citizen spending is what keeps the economy going. The use of citizen?s tax money would also be greatly affected. Tax money would be allocated more properly and used in more strategic ways. The taxation of items such as legalized marijuana brings a flow of money into the economy that would otherwise not be there. This increase of government funds would allocate more money to federal programs that are in financial need. Federal programs include public education, health education, treatment programs, etc. When the public?s way of

To explore the economic benefits of marijuana legalization we must first look at the amount of marijuana that is purchased by users. The White House Office of National Drug Policy reported that between 1988 and 1995, Americans spent about 7 billion dollars on the illegal substance, averaging about a billion dollars a year (Prislac, 2009). This means that annually there is a billion dollars out there that is subject to no sales tax. The national average for sales tax is 5%, so if you calculate the billion dollars being spent on marijuana, this means there is approximately 50 million dollars in sales tax that our government never gets

Source: Colorado Legislative Council. Tobacco Products Tax. 2016. Colorado Department of Revenue. Colorado Liquor Excise Tax Report. December 2015. Colorado Department of Revenue – Office of Research and Analysis. "The Economic Impact of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado." Marijuana Policy Group.

There is no feasible way to completely abolish drug use in the United States. As with Prohibition of Alcohol in the earlier part of this century, the fight against drugs has backfired. The United States is spending billions of dollars a year to fight a war, which over the last 60 years, has shown that it cannot be won. So let’s use a little reverse psychology on the subject. What would happen if marijuana or other illegal drugs were legalized?

The first benefit to the legalization of marijuana would be the decreased spending on law enforcement. Many of America’s jails are filled to the brim with people who got long and unfair sentences for possession of the drug. Part of the