Mollie Farragher
Mrs. Nunes
Online English 12
16 January 2015
Why Marijuana should be legalized Multiple studies have found that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco yet somehow is still considered a schedule 1 drug along with other more extreme drugs such as heroin. Marijuana is the leaves and shredded flowers of hemp plant called Cannabis sativa which is usually a green or gray mixture. Marijuana can be not only smoked in the form a joint, blunt, bowl, bong, etc but can also be eaten. Uses of marijuana can be medically or recreationally and the use of it can be dated back to thousands of years ago in Asia when its effect was discovered for medical and spiritual purposes. “The main mind-altering (psychoactive) ingredient
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One area benefited from the legalization and its tax revenue is schools and education. Colorado school districts were actually one of the first to see some profits from the new state funds. In May of 2014 a funding project in Colorado known as BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) received more than $1.1 million, all from marijuana taxes. Not only can money be gained through tax revenue if it was legalized but money that was previously spent because of marijuana prohibition can now be saved. Every year our country spends $68 billion on prisoners with one-third of them being imprisoned for nonviolent drug crimes (half of these being marijuana-related charges). Therefore, legalizing marijuana would save $11.3 billion because it wouldn’t be spent on prisons. That money being spent on prisons is your tax dollars! Not only does keeping those in prison with marijuana-related charges cost a lot but so does time and money of our police enforcement when they have to charge someone simply having a joint in their home or with friends. Imagine how much police officers could focus on other crimes if they didn’t have to worry about marijuana charges. Not only does the legalization have many medical benefits and tax revenue but also benefits the society as whole by providing job opportunity and a decrease in unemployment and crime. Many have always believed that with the legalization of marijuana would come with higher crime rate but since Colorado
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.
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
economy. While not an entirely identical comparison, the legalization of marijuana could bear some of the same positive effects as a legalization of sports betting could. Revenues could help public schools gain funds, improve communities, and decrease the
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
This tax revenue could fund the environment. Also, opening of new schools and supporting current ones. Furthermore, it could enhance the building of new roads. It could also help create hospitals and clinics. Moreover, the tax revenue could help build new police stations, and firefighting stations. It could even help the homeless. Marijuana could also bring jobs to America. In fact, it could bring thousands of new job opportunities which will reduce our unemployment rate.
All through life, everybody is informed that, "Marijuana is awful for you," over and over. A few individuals don 't generally comprehend the reasoning behind it, however despite the fact that pot is completely legal in a couple states, it is still surrounding us everywhere; legally or not. Individuals all around the globe wonder why it 's not legal all around. Can anyone explain why this drug is illegal for everyone, everywhere throughout the world? Cannabis in the United States of America has been fought over since the drug and its benefits were initially found thousands of years ago. Weed has been proven in numerous ways and demonstrated to firmly impact for everybody in need of the product. Some of these reasons are for our nation 's economy, health/wellbeing and even everybody 's general happiness. These reasons could extremely well offer America some assistance with increasing our economy and those are the reasons Marijuana should be considered to be legal throughout the United States of America.
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
In the span of 2013-14 the reports of drugs in Australia increased. There were record high reporting’s of many types of illicit drugs at the border patrol. Furthermore, many other illicit drugs had their second highest reporting in history. Cannabis is the most common drug in Australia. The number of detections of cannabis in 2013-2014 decreased, but the total weight of detected cannabis at the border control increased dramatically and was the biggest cannabis find in the last decade (Australian Drug Commission 2014). In the draft for the National Drug Strategy 2016-2025 cannabis is mentioned as a priority drug as it is the most common used illegal drug (Intergovernmental Committee on Drugs 2015). As the recent news that the Australian government is planning to legalise growing of medical cannabis there a gap in the policy of how to regulate medical cannabis and cannabis used as an illicit drug (Yaxley 2015).
From a fiscal standpoint, the legalization of marijuana is nothing but beneficial. California, Washington, and Colorado have all legalized to some extent, and are already raking in taxes on the purchase of this, now legal,
legal it would benefit both those who use and those who don’t use because of tax revenue.
In today’s society, it is clear people use marijuana for different reasons. Marijuana is a plant that is known as cannabis, weed, pot, hash, grass or dope. This type of drug is popular all over the country therefore, the intake of marijuana should be taken, very seriously. Regardless, of how weed makes a person feel it comes with positive effects as well as negative outcomes. Without a doubt, smoking marijuana or eating the drug will affect people’s behavior. Individuals self esteem increased, along with feeling relaxed or have problems concentrating. The truth is, regardless, how marijuana affects humans, they are still obligated to take care of their responsibilities to the best of their ability. With this essay, a reader will find out, why marijuana should only be legalized for medicinal use (a) it can be harmful to people’s bodies, (b) there are different side effects and (c) it needs to be taken responsibly.
Adding to that there is a lot of medical benefits associated with the use of marijuana like previously said. It can be harmful for the organism and the legalization of it use can increase the level of disease related to the use of the drug. And also a comparison with other addictive substances such as alcohol and Tobacco can be made.
Willie Nelson once said, “I think people need to be educated to the fact that marijuana is not a drug. Marijuana is an herb and a flower. God put it here. If He put it here and He wants it to grow, what gives the government the right to say that God is wrong?”
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