Socal and Financial Effects of Legalization
As the law is right now, there are many costs in regards to marijuana ranging from social to financial. The legalization of marijuana would help to lower these costs significantly and help the overall economy of the United States. There are a few tradeoffs though, since with the legalization of marijuana we could potentially see an increase in the amount of people openly partaking of it. There have been several states that have decriminalized marijuana and by doing this; they have shown a decrease in social and financial cost related to marijuana usage.
First, the if marijuana were to become legal, according to the research analyzed in one of the Journals of Public Health Policy, increases in usage …show more content…
With marijuana being legalized, the amount of tickets written, jail and fines would be decreased significantly. Even being caught with a small amount of marijuana, you can be written a ticket, carted to jail, and given a permanent strike on your record. If it were legalized, we wouldn’t have the worry of these things. “One of the key arguments for decriminalization of personal cannabis use is that the recording of a criminal conviction for such offences is a penalty that is out of proportion to the nature of the offence.”(JPHP Vol.21 No.2) Many of the states that have decriminalized it have shown decreases in many drug related tickets and arrests. “In the 1990s Marijuana was involved in over half the drug related arrests in the U.S.” (Peter Reuter) If it were to be completely legal then we could eliminate these arrests and focus on more important …show more content…
If we look at Washington’s marijuana market, they are expecting “nearly 43 million from a variety of marijuana-related taxes” (Rachel La Corte). This is expected to increase in the next few budgets to over 200 million by 2017 and over 400 million in 2017-2019. In Colorado according to the tax foundation, “Six months of legal retail marijuana sales have generated $21.8 million in tax revenue plus another $10.1 million in taxes on medical marijuana in that time period.” (Joseph Henchman) Seeing this amount of money brought in with taxes while marijuana is only decriminalized in a few states and not strictly legal, it begs the question why more states don’t decriminalize it to capitalize on the potential tax gains. It is estimated that given the trillions spent on drug enforcement in the United States currently, we could cut that easily in half by legalizing marijuana and would stand to gain billions in tax revenue in place of this
As the law is right now, there are many costs in regards to marijuana ranging from social to financial. The legalization of marijuana would help to lower these costs significantly and help the overall economy of the United States. There are a few tradeoffs though, since with the legalization of marijuana we could potentially see an increase in the amount of people openly partaking of it. There have been several states that have decriminalized marijuana and by doing this; they have shown a decrease in social and financial cost related to marijuana usage.
First, the if marijuana were to become legal, according to the research analyzed in one of the Journals of Public Health Policy, increases in usage …show more content…
With marijuana being legalized, the amount of tickets written, jail and fines would be decreased significantly. Even being caught with a small amount of marijuana, you can be written a ticket, carted to jail, and given a permanent strike on your record. If it were legalized, we wouldn’t have the worry of these things. “One of the key arguments for decriminalization of personal cannabis use is that the recording of a criminal conviction for such offences is a penalty that is out of proportion to the nature of the offence.”(JPHP Vol.21 No.2) Many of the states that have decriminalized it have shown decreases in many drug related tickets and arrests. “In the 1990s Marijuana was involved in over half the drug related arrests in the U.S.” (Peter Reuter) If it were to be completely legal then we could eliminate these arrests and focus on more important …show more content…
If we look at Washington’s marijuana market, they are expecting “nearly 43 million from a variety of marijuana-related taxes” (Rachel La Corte). This is expected to increase in the next few budgets to over 200 million by 2017 and over 400 million in 2017-2019. In Colorado according to the tax foundation, “Six months of legal retail marijuana sales have generated $21.8 million in tax revenue plus another $10.1 million in taxes on medical marijuana in that time period.” (Joseph Henchman) Seeing this amount of money brought in with taxes while marijuana is only decriminalized in a few states and not strictly legal, it begs the question why more states don’t decriminalize it to capitalize on the potential tax gains. It is estimated that given the trillions spent on drug enforcement in the United States currently, we could cut that easily in half by legalizing marijuana and would stand to gain billions in tax revenue in place of this