Over the years, marijuana has been one of the most consume recreational drug and now it's used for medical purposes. Four states have legalized recreational marijuana and a total of 23 states have legalized medical marijuana (1). According to Tom Huddleston, Jr from Fortune estimates $6.7 Billion Dollars in sales of legal marijuana would be sold in 2016 (2). Marijuana excise taxes collected by the states like Colorado have been using for school construction, law enforcement, youth programs and drug education initiatives. Colorado has collected almost $70 million in marijuana taxes that’s the double excise taxes collect from alcohol, $42 million excise taxes collected in the same year (3). After seeing the profit of marijuana, I believe the United States should legalize marijuana in all 50 states. I’ll be honest I’m not a consumer of marijuana, but I believe the excise taxes collected could help states with funding and the national debt. Many people believe with the legalization of marijuana isn’t a good idea because it’s not healthy, creates more crimes and effects the economy. If marijuana is so bad why are alcohol and tobacco is still legal? In 1920, alcohol was prohibited from manufacturing, sale and distribution of intoxicating liquors. People believe alcohol was going decrease crimes and believe that other goods and entertainment would generate more money, but that wasn’t a reality. Prohibition causes crimes to increase, it was bad for the economy, and bootleg alcohol was sold. In 1933 Prohibition ended, the economy recovered, crime decreased, alcohol had restriction and regulation (4). After Prohibition, alcohol generates many excise taxes, the U.S. government isn’t going to prohibit alcohol even though it causes many health problems and death; the taxes are uses for school, streets, and other necessary expenses. Tobacco is a legal consumable item that causes health problems, but the federal government is going to let tobacco companies produce more tobacco products. In the next five years, tobacco excise tax would generate $50 billion dollars (5). Legal marijuana generated about $1.6 billion in taxes just in the 23 states; imagine if all 50 states were legal how much money legal marijuana would (6). Legalized marijuana would benefit the economy. Legislators can create laws strictly on consuming, selling, and distribution; also creating age restriction like the same with alcohol and regulate marijuana making sure is safe to consume. Legalizing marijuana would decrease crimes, because there wouldn’t illegal trafficking of marijuana, putting out cartels out of business (7). Marijuana is use as medicine to help treat and prevent illnesses (8). Marijuana becoming legal for recreational or medical it would help the economy. We can’t prohibit something because is unhealthy; many products aren’t safe but we still consume and the government profits. So if someone says marijuana shouldn’t be legal first think how much taxes could be collected, second the uses of those taxes are use to help build schools, streets and other things, finally thing to consider if marijuana is bad for us why have legal products like alcohol and tobacco available for sale, if the government was concern with our health it would remove legal products that cause harm. Marijuana is beneficial for everyone.
1)
Barnard, Jeff. "Five Questions:
Here Is What’s Legal (and What’s Not) in Oregon Marijuana." The
Cannabist. Associated Press, 22 June 2015. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
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Basu, Tanya. "Colorado Raised More
Tax Revenue From Marijuana Than From Alcohol." Time. N.p., 16 Sept.
2015. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
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Huddleston, Tom, Jr. "The Legal Pot
Market Could Hit $22 Billion in Sales By 2020." Fortune. N.p., 01
Feb. 2016. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
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History.com Staff.
"Prohibition." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 01
Jan. 2009. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
5)
Tobaccofreekids.org. Increasing the
federal Tobacco tax by 94 cents per pack will increase revenue and save lives. N.p.:
n.p., 2015. PDF.
6)
St. Pierre, Allen. "Congressional
Research Service: Report On Federal Government Taxing Marijuana." NORML
Blog Marijuana Law Reform Congressional Research Service Report On Federal
Government Taxing Marijuana Comments. N.p., 20 Nov. 2014. Web. 01 Apr.
2016.
7)
Savron, Jacqueline. "7 Ways America
Would Change If Marijuana Became Legal - AvvoStories." AvvoStories.
N.p., 28 May 2010. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
8)
Loria, Jennifer Welsh and Kevin.
"23 Health Benefits Of Marijuana." Business Insider. Business
Insider, Inc, 20 Apr. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.
I’m feeling your argument, Miss Gomez. Federal legalization of recreational marijuana could bring about so many great opportunities for this country. Before I begin, let me clearly state that I am all for this. However, there are several terrible road blocks in why it’s going to be a true struggle for political figures to get their heads out of their asses and make this happen. From 1970 to 2014, the percentage of inmates locked in federal prisons for non-violent drug related charges rose from just 16% to 50.1%. Why such a steady, dramatic increase? Good, ole Nixon and the War on Drugs, that’s why. In 1971, Nixon declared rising drug abuse as “public enemy number one”. This declaration set into motion a series of new regulations in the effort of eradicating drugs from the streets of our nation. These motions included tougher laws and punishments for drug offences. You didn’t have to traffic pot by the pounds to have the book thrown at you. Something as small as a half inch long roach in your car ashtray could get you 2 years. Obviously these drastic measures have never worked. Drug abuse in this country is steadily increasing and until we start treating people as addicts instead of criminals, we are never going to see a decrease in abuse. Our inmate population has risen to outlandish numbers. Federal prisons make millions off these petty drug offenders. Judges have been accused of handing off harsh lengthy prison terms to petty drug offenders that come from underprivileged neighborhoods (the kind of kids who can’t afford real attorneys and get stuck with an over worked and under paid public defender who could really give two shits less) in exchange for under the table pay outs from the companies that run these prisons. The more inmates they have, the more grant money the government provides. Trust me when I say, that money is in no way being spent on inmates. The system is choreographed to benefit these assholes. Let’s say tomorrow marijuana is made recreationally legal on a federal level. Would all of those inmates serving sentences for marijuana be released? They should be. However, certain people running these prisons are never going to allow that. They would not only see a dramatic drop in their current populations, but the lack of sentencing in the future would continue to keep their numbers low. This means less cash flow, and that’s just not an option for these crooks.
ReplyDeleteThe amount of tax’s that could be collected from this could take care of so many issues for this country. We could pay our teachers better competitive wages. We could use it to fund federal rehabilitation clinics, where true addicts could go (instead of prison-maybe this is an opportunity for the prison system to make up some of their potential lost income?) to get the help they need. We could use it to help law enforcement and fire departments (neither get paid nearly what they should). The possibilities are endless and bountiful. We as the people just have to push a little bit harder to get our country there.