Why Marijuana Should be Legalized

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 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.

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

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

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

The legalization of marijuana could possibly create annual tax revenue of 2.4 billion if taxed normally, and 6.2 billion if the government used similar tax rates that are currently used for alcohol and tobacco sales. (Miron, 2005)

Have you ever considered the harmful affects of marijuana? Marijuana can be a very harmful thing and it can be addictive and lead to worsening behavior: regular use of marijuana affects your education, the substance would be highly abused by people, and injuries or even death could occur when you use this drug. People take advantage of this drug, even if it is prescribed by a doctor, it is still misused. Should medical marijuana be legal in Utah? If it was legalized in Utah, there would be lots of negative things that would happen. Education and learning could be affected immensely. Injuries and even death could occur when using this drug. Environmental damage could occur.

      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

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.

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

It seems as though everyone has their own opinion when it comes to the legalization of marijuana. The question spans all age groups, races, and religions. You will hear different answers from individuals under each group. Some view the use of the substance as a sin and believe that the use should be a crime and others view it as a freedom that each citizen should be granted. Marty Nemko, a Ph.D. holding, education evaluation specialist, says otherwise. In his article published by TIME magazine, Nemko goes into details as to why he believes legalizing marijuana will have far more consequences than it does reward. His points seem as though they would be valid, however his argument is stretched and very weak. Nemko uses irrational logic, slanted, biased data, and opinion based assumptions to attempt to persuade readers to join his cause.

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).

legal it would benefit both those who use and those who don’t use because of tax revenue.

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.

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