Economic Effects Of Legalizing Marijuana

A controversial topic often being advocated for by sitting governors is whether the legalization of marijuana is more beneficial or harmful to the economy. Marijuana, also known as weed, is a mixture of the dried and shredded leaves, stems, seeds, and flowers of the cannabis sativa plant. It’s the most widely used illegal drug in the United States, even though studies have shown results that the benefits of using marijuana for medicinal or recreational reasons far outweigh the negative matters that may be associated with its use. While marijuana is still a controlled substance under federal law, thirteen U.S. states currently have compassionate use laws in place, which allow for regulated medical marijuana use. By legalizing marijuana, the government is helping the economy by reaping medical and financial benefits, not only at the state level, but also at the federal level. Taking into account the numerous studies done with marijuana on whether it is for recreational use or medical purposes, the government cannot go wrong in legalizing marijuana because of such an impact it will have. Marijuana should be legalized for recreational purposes because it will help society economically and socially.

This paper will look at the benefits and drawbacks to legalizing marijuana by looking in at Colorado.The state made forty million dollars by taxed marijuana in 2014 alone, also Colorado saved countless millions because of the extremely lower amounts of marijuana arrest and court cases. It is not clear how having new recreational marijuana stores opening will affect the cannabis market, or businesses expanding around them. Gov. John Hickenlooper says that the economy is thriving with record setting numbers of tourists (73.1 million). 49 percent of those tourist said that legal marijuana influenced their decisions to vacation in Colorado. The ER’s in Colorado have also seen a rise in numbers of marijuana related cases and those cases in non-residents have almost doubled. An unexpected situation that arose from legal cannabis was the amount of electricity that is being use to grow the drug. Some cannabusinesses have to go green with solar or wind power. There are many varying views on the effects of legal marijuana have developed in Colorado since marijuana became legal in 2014.

The legalization of cannabis in the state of Massachusetts has proven to be a very controversial topic with many citizens for and against its legalization. Personally I am for the legalization of cannabis, and today I will be writing a totally opinion based paper regarding the economic benefits that legalization could offer this fine state.

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.

The legalization of marijuana has been a topic of debate for many years. This may be because of the cultural diversity that the United States of America is known for. Recently, bills were passed in Colorado and Washington to implement the legalization and regulation of recreational marijuana use. These events along with the ever growing popularity of the drug in society, media, and entertainment are proving to be more than anti-marijuana advocates can handle. In this paper, I explore the financial, social, medical, and political benefits of legalizing marijuana.

Legalizing marijuana has become one of the most talked about topics in Canada. The Canadian Government has many considerations to digest before they legalize the drug

Canada has a history in debating the use of cannabis and the circumstances when it can be beneficial for the consumer and for society as a whole. The Canadian federal government encourages "protection for ill Canadians with degenerative health diseases" (Jacob 2009, 210). The federal government considers that the

Throughout history, marijuana and its use in Canada has been surrounded with a myriad of controversy. Since its controversial prohibition in 1923 (Schwartz), marijuana has been a hot point of debate amongst Canadians. Although many believe that marijuana is extremely addictive, has negative effects on brain function and creates more crime, it is painfully obvious that Canada would benefit greatly from the taxing and selling of marijuana. The decriminalization of marijuana will not only salvage hundreds of millions of dollars in wasted law enforcement, but also will create a large financial windfall for the government in addition to directing more citizens to a less harmful drug than alcohol. According to many people who disagree with the sale of marijuana, “marijuana has serious health implications” (Berman). However, a recent study

Marijuana legalization has been a debateable topic in the recent history. Canada’s government sees Marijuana as the biggest threat while alcohol and tobacco, two of the most life threatening substances are legal, so why not legalize marijuana as well? Is prohibition of marijuana really helping the society or is it just creating the forbidden fruit effect”, which provokes the citizens to try it? There are many different ideas regarding its complete legalization as well as the smaller scale medical marijuana legalization. Regardless of what the conclusion of the argument is, these beliefs fall under either social order or conflict perspective. Following this topic,

Weed, ganja, pot-all names for the illegal drug marijuana. In Canada possession of cannabis otherwise known as marijuana is a criminal offence punishable by law, and can come with some serious consequences. Although Illegal the harmful effects of cannabis has on the human body are few compared to its legal counter parts such as tobacco and alcohol. In Canada marijuana has been an outlawed substance as a result of the Narcotics Drug Act Amendment Bill of 1923 which declares it illegal to possess. Now in the twenty first century people are starting to realise that marijuana is not as terrible as previously thought, in addition it provides many health benefits. There are numerous reasons why cannabis should be legal in Canada and throughout the world. Despite its few negative health factors marijuana should be legalized in Canada, because of the health benefits of marijuana has, the relatively lesser "negatives" of cannabis compared to controlled substances such as alcohol and tobacco, the effect marijuana has had on the states that have legalized its recreational use, and finally the economic benefit Canada would receive with legalization.

As shops for recreational and medical Marijuana open, more purchases of the product will be made which impacts the tax revenue. An example would be Colorado (a state that legalizes Marijuana) where “In 2015, Colorado collected more than $135 million in taxes and fee on medical and recreational marijuana” (Krishna, 2017). Arcview Market Research also predicts that “Sales in North America grew 30%, to $6.7 billion, in 2016, and is projected to increase to $20.1 billion by 2021”. The legalization of Marijuana will also provide many job opportunities since a variety of different jobs will be needed that relate to Marijuana. Investopedia.Com states “A RCG Economics and Marijuana Policy Group study on Nevada says that legalizing recreational marijuana in the state could support over 41,000 jobs till 2024 and generate over $1.7 billion in labor income. The ICF study estimates at least 81,000 additional direct, indirect, and induced jobs in California as a result of legalized marijuana sales. It also projects an increase in total labor income by at least $3.5 billion”. Another way legalizing Marijuana would impact the economy positively is that the government can save money spent on enforcing the law of Marijuana being illegal. Huffington post states “Inmates incarcerated on marijuana-related charges cost U.S. prisons $1 billion annually, according to a 2007 study, AlterNet reports.” and “The government would save an estimated $13.7 billion on prohibition enforcement costs and tax revenue by legalizing marijuana”.This low risk substance saves the economy a lot of money and support it

Cannabis, a drug that has been prohibited for many decades now is finally making it’s way to legalization in Canada. This report looks at the effects legalization of cannabis has on the nation from a public health, social and economic perspective. We did this through reviewing evidence from scholarly academic papers and government reports, taking similar ideas putting them together to create themes and based on that create recommendations of legalization. Public health research definitely seems to immediately go against legalization - from a clinical perspective- as there are a vast variety of adverse effects smoking marijuana can do to individuals, especially youth, who do it often. There is also issue of the negative exposure it gives to

      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

Table 1, shown above, displays excise and sales tax revenues in Colorado during 2014, 2015 and estimated values for 2020, with regards to the different sources of taxation. The projected values for 2020 where estimated by the Marijuana Policy Group, the policy and economic consulting firm responsible for key roles in many Marijuana related national policies across the United States. As can be seen, excise and sales tax revenues for Marijuana exceeded those of Alcohol in Colorado during 2015 by almost 3 fold. They have surpassed the gaming and casino industry and only fall second to the tobacco tax revenues. This is the results of two components simultaneously at play, the first being an increase in demand and the second being a shift in sales and demand from the untaxed black market towards the regulated and taxed official retail market (Light, Orens, Rowberry and Saloga 11). The projections from table 1 show that by 2020 Marijuana could even potentially dethrone Cigarettes as the most lucrative source of excise and sales tax revenue in Colorado, due to the