Summary: The Effects Of Decriminalizing Marijuana

Recently states have started to move towards the direction of decriminalization or legalization of marijuana. The first states to have done it were Colorado and Washington in 2012. Since it has now been more than four years since this happened we can now start to see the effects that the legalization of marijuana had on these states. For example just last year, Colorado earned more money in tax revenue from weed than alcohol sales. This is money that the state could not have gotten

These negative effects of marijuana being illegal at the recreational level can be fixed. There are solutions and benefits to these problems. The first and most important thing the state will have to do in order to legalize recreational cannabis is decriminalize the drug. If marijuana was decriminalized in the state of Minnesota, crime rates and arrest would decrease. According to Christopher Ingraham, a writer for the Washington Post said, “In Colorado, marijuana arrests fell by nearly half from 2012 to 2014. Marijuana possession charges in Washington state fell by a more dramatic 98 percent between 2012 and 2013. Alaska, Oregon, and D.C. show similar declines.” Colorado, Alaska, Oregon, and D.C. saw major benefits when they decided to make marijuana legal for recreational use. If Minnesota decriminalized marijuana, not as many people would be in jail, which would help with the over crowdedness in prisons in the state. Colorado alone has compiled several research studies demonstrating that legalization has not promoted an increase in violent crimes. According to research conducted by the Drug Policy Alliance “During the first year of the implementation of Amendment 64, Denver experienced a 2.2 percent decrease in violent crime rates and an 8.9 percent reduction in property crime offenses” (Heuberger). Decriminalizing cannabis will help our police department focus on more violent and heavy drug-related crimes. This evidence provides proof that legalizing recreational

Cannabis, a drug that has been prohibited for many decades now is finally making it’s way to legalization in Canada. This report looks at the effects legalization of cannabis has on the nation from a public health, social and economic perspective. We did this through reviewing evidence from scholarly academic papers and government reports, taking similar ideas putting them together to create themes and based on that create recommendations of legalization. Public health research definitely seems to immediately go against legalization - from a clinical perspective- as there are a vast variety of adverse effects smoking marijuana can do to individuals, especially youth, who do it often. There is also issue of the negative exposure it gives to

The fact that marijuana has proven to be useful in the treatment of multiple diseases that hinder Americans today seems to have been overlooked by the legal system in the United States, until now. At this point it's now possible to acquire prescribed amounts of Medical Marijuana from KW Medical Marijuana Dispensaries, among other sources now provided in certain states here in the United States. Most of the Medical Marijuana Dispensaries require that you first get a recommendation from your primary physician before you can get a formal prescription for Medical Marijuana filled, but it has now been proven that Marijuana can be used to help patients that suffer with ailments such as glaucoma, hypoglycemia, cancer, nerve damage, severe back pain,

More than half the states in the union have passed some form of legislation decriminalizing marijuana for either medical or recreational use despite Schedule I classification (a substance with no medical values and high potential for abuse) by the federal government. Cannabis prohibition has remained a controversial topic for the better part of the last century, and popular opinion has begun to shift. Although banned in most countries, cannabis has long been used in a variety of industrial, medicinal, and recreational purposes throughout history.

My thesis is that the legalization of marijuana would have a positive influence on America. In this report I have attempted to prove that this is indeed lawful. The general legalization of marijuana would allow Americans to work and use hemp to America’s great advantage. Billions of bucks would be kept in government expenditures and, in fact, revenue from taxation on the regulated sale of marihuana would be in the billions. Although the shock on a person’s health is debatable, the smoking of marijuana on a steady basis is most definitely not equally harmful as smoking cigarettes every day or the excessive drinking of alcohol. Nobody has ever perished from a cannabis overdose. Lastly, and most obviously, marijuana for medical use would benefit

So far there are 29 states that have in some way changed the laws that deal with marijuana, either decriminalizing it for smaller amounts or making is legal for recreational use for adults 21 and older. Decriminalization will make it so that punishment will be lessened but sadly under federal law some punishments still stand. Passed recreational use will allow people to be able to have an ounce on them while giving them the right to grow anywhere from 4 to 6 plants at their homes. Now to say this is how every states laws work is false there are many differences across the spectrum, sometimes even leaving a few bump's in the road for people.

My legal paper will talk about how employees are taking other substances to reduce their physical pain. Recently in the news, an American football player smoked some synthetic marijuana and turned himself in at a police station with no shirt and his hands up. Currently, synthetic marijuana, or “spice” as it is commonly known in the streets, is legal in all states, even though it is worse than marijuana on all accounts. Stigma of marijuana varies in the United States, there’s a current trend where the people that are pro-marijuana are starting to be the majority. Certain states have legalized or decriminalized marijuana all together and with many other states following their footsteps. Do employers think it is okay that their workers take more dangerous substances in order to reduce their physical pain?

The decriminalization and legalization of Cannabis in select states in the United States has so far proven to be a positive economic attribution to the states that have passed legislature, ending the status of prohibition. In November of 2012 the state of Washington and Colorado voted and passed legislature approving the use and sale of recreational marijuana. This historic event in return is currently creating a new market for job opportunities as well as a considerable amount of tax revenue for the state. Keeping nonviolent drug offenders out of the jail system also saves money. Ending prohibition of this substance leads to it being taxed and regulated like alcohol. After all the individuals and distributors of the black market do not pay

The Article is titled “When booze was banned but pot was not: what can today’s anti prohibitionists learn from their predecessors?” It is a online article written by Jacob Sullum, the nationally syndicated columnist and the author of Saying Yes: In Defense of Drug Use. The purpose of the article is to show how the outlaw of booze is like the illegalization of marijuana today. It shows the potheads of today that anti prohibitionists got it done and they can too. The intended audience are people who are interested in today's marijuana policies and whether or not it will be legalized. The article is effective in its argument and seems to be very credible given its citations and examples of evidence.

Sometimes seen in today’s media is the activity of marijuana enthusiasts and their difficult mission to have their drug legalized for recreational use. Through the efforts of these activists in the United States, decriminalization and legalization of marijuana has been considered and in some cases deemed legal by many states. However, its consideration of legalization is not a spontaneous decision by the United States government nor the individual states, but is the result of ordinary citizens who support the use of marijuana actively disobeying the law and persistently expressing their ideas of how the laws surrounding marijuana should be defined. This large campaign has seen activity in Canada as well with steps being made to decriminalize

The prohibition of marijuana has an enormous social cost. The detrimental effects of prohibition run from wasted resources to shattered lives. The police all over America pledge thousands of hours to arresting, booking, and inprisoning marijuana smokers everyday. Many of whom are otherwise law-abiding citizens. In 2012, more than 658,000 arrests were made due to marijuana. The most disastrous of these arrests have spent over a decade in prison. These arrest take policemen not only away from their loved ones, but away from more serious and urgent issues. Furthermore, enforcing laws on possession cost over 3.6 billion dollars of the tax payers money every year. With that being said, the reason marijuana became illegal is because the government

Marijuana has been approved and legalized for medical purposes in twenty-seven of the fifty states. The states that have been approved now legally have the freedom to proscribe todays dual drug; marijuana. Marijuana is a dual drug in seven of the twenty-seven that have been granted the right; marijuana can be proscribed as a medical need as well as sold for recreational use. Medical marijuana is used by some people to get high but most are proscribed marijuana to elevate pain, generate an appetite and relieve stress; these are a few of many benefits of medical marijuana. The argument of weather medical marijuana should be completely legalized in all fifty states, one can argue that marijuana should be legalized to only proscribed individuals

Many people wonder what it would be like if we legalized marijuana, and what its effect would have on today society. On the other hand many do not even want to think about the drug legalization even if it is for a good cause, such as it being made into medical marijuana. The definition of Marijuana is “dried leaves and flowering tops of the pistillate hemp plants that yield THC and are smoked in cigarettes for their intoxicating effect.” (Merriam) Many people think that Marijuana is bad due to the fact that it is a drug but what many people cannot see is that Marijuana does more than just getting a person “high” it gives the freedom to sick patients from all their harsh medicines and pain to feel more normal, and functional. Although there

Carl Sagan once said, “The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world” (1969). Medically, marijuana can treat many conditions such as pain, inflammation, epilepsy, cancer and post-traumatic stress disorder. With a mature marijuana industry, the United States could see over $20 billion in tax revenues. Legalizing marijuana could create jobs across America and drop the unemployment rate. Fully legalizing marijuana would benefit America medicinally, economically, as well as create more jobs.