Marijuana’S Legalization Could Earn Billions Of Dollars

The United States has, in some states, legalized the use of marijuana. Studies done have shown that it helps the state economies grow, and has given the states millions of dollars in tax revenue. So imagine the money that would be saved if marijuana were legalized in the whole country. The United States would benefit from a stronger economy, increased jobs, reduced prison costs, lower medicinal marijuana prices, and the availability of medical marijuana to the people who need it.

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

Need a quick fix to the current economic crisis? How about opening thousands of marijuana dispensaries, supplying tens of thousands of Americans with jobs, and bringing in billions of tax dollars to the government. Is marijuana a threat to our society and our youth? Or is it a plant, capable of easing the pain of the sick, inhibit the growth of cancer cells, rejuvenating the weary, and bringing ease to our stressful lives. The war on drugs has been a failure and it affects us all! The current cost of the war on drugs is 51 billion dollars annually and not only has marijuana use risen but it has become cheaper and easier to get. A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center stated that 48% of adults in America have tried marijuana and 40% had done so in the past three years. Legalizing marijuana would benefit the country in many ways.

This increased government revenue could be seen as a major advantage in legalising marijuana where revenue could be used for increase expenditure in defence, education and health.

Taxing marijuana would be an asset to this country’s economy by helping them with the debts, rebuilding schools, and lowering crime rates. According to Matt Ferner of the Huffington Post, since Colorado legalized marijuana the state has made $600 million in combined wholesale and retail sales (Ferner). This can be great because the United States could pay off much of its debts. That amount of money was earned through a 25 percent tax on retail purchasing, including a 15 percent excise tax, and a 10 percent sales tax (Ferner). Another asset of taxing marijuana is that the government can give some of the money to the public. Some of this money can go to schools, hospitals, and medical treatments. The rest can go to creating new

According to a recent article from Huffington Post; in Washington alone, the legalization of marijuana could bring in an estimated five hundred million in additional tax revenue. Along with tax revenue, reducing the added cost of marijuana could greatly drop the price per gram, resulting in more money to spend in the local economy. Currently, one billion dollars is spent in prisons for inmates that have been charged due to marijuana-related crimes in result of marijuana being illegal. Time magazine reports that, as a crop, marijuana farmer's in California have found a surplus of sales. An estimated fourteen billion dollars a year on average, making marijuana the most profitable cash crop in the state. If legalized, marijuana could help add countless amounts of jobs into the formal economy instead of the illicit market (Bradford, Huffinton

Drugs like marijuana might end the costly war between legalizing drugs or not. There is estimation that legalizing the most influential drug marijuana or other drugs would save the government. Drugs would be such a good business for the government because approximately $41.3 billion in savings, $8.7 billion on legalizing marijuana, and $32.6 billion from the legalization of other drugs, like cocaine and heroin. Those savings of savings $25.7 billion would go to state and local governments. This bad because it’s going to make it easier for

This new market could provide a new source of revenue for the government to spend on other important projects such as healthcare or education. In the state of Colorado alone nearly generated $200 million in sales revenue in 2016. (3 Arguments for and Against Legalizing Marijuana,2017). If weed was legalized this could allow the government to use the new money on improving healthcare, education etc..

After so many years, America still finds itself fighting a well-known and highly demonized "enemy". The enemy is not terrorism. It's an "enemy" that many Americans have dealt with face to face. This enemy is illegal drugs, marijuana in particular. Marijuana is the most widely used and criminalized drug in the United States. This highly sought after resource yields a black market price tag that creates a street economy all its' own. This is Marijuana by itself, it and all the other illegal drugs together combine to form the third largest economy in the world. This is because the demand for illegal drugs is so high. There can be benefits to a legalized drug trade that is certain. The following paper will defend that some uses of

If decriminalized users could obtain their marijuana at government regulated prices (Incardi 285). Money that the government cultivated from the selling of marijuana, the money they saved from reducing the war on drugs to hurtful drugs like cocaine and heroin, and the money saved from not housing so many inmates every year is much needed.

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

Smoking a joint once or twice can be on your record for drug offense. (Crime, unforgiving). The government could make a profit of $7 billion a year legalizing marijuana just like tobacco. Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President once quoted, “Marijuana is of first necessity to the improve wealth & protection of the country." Marijuana has a big flip side that can increase our economy.

Casual marijuana advocates often overstate the economic impact from legalization. Some even make a ludicrous suggestion that it would pay off the national debt. Legal marijuana, just like any other single solution, can’t fix our national debt. It was $16.4 trillion when it reached the debt ceiling on December 31, 2012. Nevertheless, there clearly are no perfect forecasts for determining the potential economic impact of the legal marijuana industry in the future. However, according to the available data, approximately 1 in every 10 Americans smokes marijuana at least once a year. Among them, about 24 million Americans smoke marijuana on a regular basis. CNBC offered a moderate estimate that a fully legal marijuana industry would generate $16-20 billion in taxes and $40 billion in sales annually. Clearly legal marijuana wouldn’t be the economic miracle as some people expect it to be, but it still represents a massive economic impact. As the former Senator Everett Dirksen reportedly once said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

will boost income to fund projects, such as new parks and road repairs” (“19 Primary Pros and

Cannabis is the third widely used drug in the United States following alcohol and tobacco even though it is currently illegal. Because marijuana is so used so much and is illegal it plays a big role in the War on Drugs. War on Drugs is a term commonly applied to a campaign of prohibition of drugs, military aid, and military intervention, with the purpose being to define and reduce the illegal drug trade in the United States (Giroux & Pollock). The purpose is to set drug policies that are intended to decrease the production, distribution, and consumption of illegal drugs. Because marijuana is illegal the price of the final product increases to very high values because of the black market status, which together with the powerful effects of drug addiction causes users to commit crimes in order to fund their addiction. If weed became legal and regulated in the United States, the price would decrease leading to the decrease in the illegal drug industry. This would also decrease the crimes committed by both drug sellers and drug users. The government spends a lot of money on trying to stop citizens from using marijuana while there are more important things the government should be spending their money on such as social programs. Another pro of marijuana is that it has no physiological addiction while other drugs that are legal such as tobacco have a higher physiological addiction rate than cocaine. Also if marijuana becomes