Should Marijuana Be Legalized?

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.

This alone is saving vast amounts of money, which the Colorado state government would ordinarily spend on creating more prisons for non-violent offenders. Marijuana is big business now, and control seems to be moving out of the hands of the drug cartels. This MMJ is not going away, and both the state and federal government is making money instead of spending to expand federal prisons that are now overflowing with non-violent marijuana offenders. It is time to get money back in the form of tax revenue. It is time to stop throwing good money after bad to eradicate this cash crop. We need to stop putting non-violent offenders in jail.

    In 2016, close to 600,000 people were jailed for possession     of marijuana, a harmless drug, regardless of the amount (Ingraham 1). In the eyes of the law, these innocuous offenses are seen as serious crimes, and are often treated harshly.  The executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, Maria Moreno, agrees that the cruel punishment over marijuana “has devastated families across the US...for no good reason” (Ingraham 2). Marijuana has been proven to be safer than tobacco and alcohol, there is a road test for the prevention of impaired driving, and its taxation would provide money to the government that could then be used similarly to Colorado, who put most of their profit from marijuana sales towards school funding (Smith 1). The taxation of marijuana would provide the government with an abundance of revenue; If regulations on the amount of marijuana one can purchase and age minimums are set into place, combined with new methods to test for marijuana use while driving, legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana would be beneficial for the United States government.

In the first year of legal recreational pot, the state received back approximately $69 million in taxes (it was originally projected to bring in upwards of $100 million). (Colorado). Although Josh Barrow, a domestic correspondent for The New York Times, said “That figure is consequential in two ways. First, it’s a wide miss. Second, compared with Colorado’s all-funds budget of $27 billion, neither $69 million nor $118 million is a large number.” (Barro). I agree with the stance that Josh takes, concerning that it is far off from Colorado’s all-funds budget, however, the money that is being made from the sales of recreational marijuana are are still being geared towards the building of new schools. Considering that Colorado spends less per student than the national average, the addition of new buildings is a step in the right direction. Once the buildings are up, those taxes can then be directed at teacher salaries which would eventually decrease class sizes, and hopefully assist in integrating more after school

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

According to Prop 205 Arizona they said, “The first $40 million goes to a state program called BEST, which awards grants to local school districts to build and improve school facilities.” Prop 205 was the bill that was under this election deciding whether Marijuana should be or should not be legalized for recreational use in Arizona. Let’s look at the state of Colorado for example, the made Marijuana legal in 2012 and the economic benefits have been nothing slight of fantastic. “Legalization has ushered in thousands of new jobs in the burgeoning industry, brought $135 million into state coffers last year, and ended the prohibition of a widely used substance,” according to Colorado Senate President Bill Cadman. An article in the Denver Post states retail Marijuana sales have been helping communities address homelessness, send children to college, patch potholes, secure water rights and fund an array of projects from every small town to the largest cities in the state. To be even more specific, a county in Colorado called Adams County has collected more than $500,000 for scholarships for low-income students. Marijuana has the potential to uplift states and boost their economy as a

Colorado’s decision to legalize recreational and medical marijuana has added over $100 million to the state’s budget annually. First, the state collected $76 million in taxes and fees from the legal marijuana industry. Secondly, the state’s criminal justice costs were reduced by up to $40 million annually, according to a conservative estimate by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. In

Just as there have been many cases of negative consequences for the legalization of marijuana…there have also been positive cases. Over the years, the marijuana industry has developed rapidly and generated thousands of new jobs. After the legalization of weed over 18,000 full-time jobs were created and added roughly 2.4 billion USD (US Dollars) to the state of Colorado’s economy. Colorado also accumulated over 10 million USD in taxes from retail sales in the first four months (“7 Ways Marijuana Legalization Has Already Benefited Colorado In Only 8

Over the last century, Marijuana has been legalized and decriminalized for numerous different purposes. Marijuana’s popularity had been increasing and shows no signs of slowing or stopping. People still continue to use marijuana no matter what obstacles comes in the way, whether it be the threat of being caught, imprisoned or other more serious federal consequences for simply trying to get high. And since there whether it be illegal or legal there is no stopping the use of Marijuana medically or recreationally. Many states have seen this issue as a business opportunity to tax the sale of marijuana to bring more money and funds into the state power. And In the past decade 8 states have legalized marijuana for recreational use, sale and for medical

Recreational legalization began in 2012 with Colorado and Washington leading the charge, and within their first-year Colorado grossed 70 million dollars in tax revenue in 2012 which isn’t too bad, but in 2016 it doubled to 140 million. With all this money, the state has been directing it towards schools, law enforcement, and much more. Not only is the state profiting from this, but even local businesses like restaurants, convenience stores, movie theaters, even people who would normally be considered a felon for growing pot before could make a lot of money growing for businesses. But that’s not all, after Colorado’s first year of legalization violent crime in the state has dropped 2.2%, marijuana related arrests are down 84%, and even traffic fatalities have dropped 3%. So not only is weed helping financially, it’s making the state a much safer place to live in. But the legalization of marijuana isn’t completely positive. Sadly there are only a select amount of areas where people can consume the weed they purchase, because of this Colorado officials have issued 668 public cannabis consumption citations, which is a 471% increase in compared to the year before it became legal. Not just that but neighboring states Nebraska, and Oklahoma have been suing Colorado since their border enforcement officers have been overwhelmed by cannabis related arrests causing many issues within their justice system.

In the states that have fully legalized marijuana, revenue collections have exceeded initial estimates. Colorado anticipated $70 million in marijuana tax collection per year and state collections will likely exceed $140 million in calendar year 2016. Legalizing marijuana would generate $8.7 billion in federal and state tax revenue annually. Researchers assumed that legalized marijuana would be taxed similarly to alcohol and tobacco. Business income from marijuana production would initially raise almost $5.5 billion in federal revenues and an additional $1.5 billion in state and local revenues. Also, more than 300 economists say that if the government legalized marijuana it would save $7.7 billion annually by not having to enforce current prohibition on the drug. It would also save an additional $6 billion if the government taxed marijuana at rates similar to alcohol and

When the state government passed these laws, they weren’t sure how to tax it because the federal government hadn’t legalized it. Only a few states have recreational and medical, legal. A few other states have one or the other. When you only have one you’re not going to bring in a lot of taxes. The industry will make a certain amount each year. Washington and Colorado have had marijuana legalized the longest, therefore they have the better data than the other states. The people voting were told that the legalization would bring around 2 billion dollars. marijuana can be used many different ways, but because it can be sold as a cigarette, edible, liquid, or vape, a specific tax is hard to do. Based on Tax Foundation’s statistics in Colorado, “15 percent tax

Marijuana, or cannabis, is a prepared marijuana plant that is intended to play a role in medicine as well as being a psychoactive drug (Kilmer 45). The psychoactive element found in cannabis is known as the tetrahydrocannabinol abbreviated as THC. THC is one of the 483 compounds of the plant that have been identified. Mainly, cannabis is consumed because of its psychoactive and physiological effects that is has on the consumer. Today, marijuana is used for its medicinal values as well as a recreational drug. Other uses might include religious and spiritual rites performed by people (Kaplan 722). Marijuana has been surrounded by legal issues. This paper seeks to delineate the reasons for and against legalization of

In 2015, Colorado collected more than $135 million in taxes and fee on medical and recreational marijuana. Sales in the state totaled over $996 million. Sales in North America grew 30%, to $6.7 billion, in 2016, and is projected to increase to $20.1 billion by 2021, according to ArcView Market Research. With the money they received from these taxes, they did many important things to improve life for the people. Schools were funded, and new ones were built, some money went to health programs, including Medicaid, substance abuse prevention efforts and community health centers, and there was still money left to fix roads and apartments throughout the state. What I already know about marijuana is that it doesn’t harm you like many other drugs do. How many people do you know that has killed someone or have done something dumb like many other drugs do? An estimated 88,000 people (approximately 62,000 men and 26,000 women) die from alcohol-related causes annually, making alcohol the third leading preventable cause of death in the United States. The first is tobacco. The two biggest causes of death are due to things that are illegal, and man made by

Although the revenue derived from legalization of marijuana should not be a primary reason behind the movement, it would provide a much needed boost to state and federal budgets. Today, the money already being made from the illegal sale of the drugs is going into the pockets of the dealers and suppliers. Projections on revenue impacts differ based on who is supplying the data and change often. Revenue estimates for the legal sale of marijuana in 2010 fluctuated between $10 billion and $100 billion. A study conducted by Scott Bates in 20014 reviewed the impact of legalization of marijuana in Alaska and estimated that Alaska could realize a $10-12 million dollar boost in state revenue annually (Boreal Economic Analyisis & Research, 2004). National