- Marijuana can be used medically
It is an ancient drug, legalized for at least medical uses in many states, and even used as early as Ancient China, by Shen Neng, for many different aliments. Medical Marijuana is being used to help in older, more hesitant populations to relieve symptoms that might be caused by other diseases or even medication.
Medical Marijuana can be used to treat:
- Muscle Spasms
- Nausea
- Poor Appetite
- Seizure Disorders
- Pain
- Marijuana can be a new revenue source for taxation for the economy
Colorado is one of the first producers of the industry to have an effective tax rate of 30.43%, making the $27.87 worth of weed cost the consumer $36.35. This new product can be used to create revenue for the state, so the money that wasn’t originally being collected, is now being used to help improve schools or pay police officers. Every dollar that is spent on the industry, anywhere between $2.13 and $2.40 is created in economic activity.
- Marijuana can be a job creator
This new industry has many new and educated jobs that are created from this new product line that is being utilized and adapted every day. Everything that goes into creating a business, like a seller, mover, advertiser, growers, and ect are now being created. The use to be drug dealers are now becoming contributing businessmen. It is even predicted that by 2020 the cannabis industry will create more than a quarter of a million jobs.
- The war on drugs is a failure
There comes a huge cost for marijuana to be illegal. Over 643,000 people were arrested in violations of marijuana laws and about 89% of those who were arrested only had possession. Jeffrey Miron, a senior lecturer at Harvard University, studied the impacts of drug legalization, and found that about $8.7 billion would be saved on law enforcement and another $8.7 billion could be generated from taxation of marijuana.
- Nixon created the negative stigma making everyone fear marijuana
Nixon had the opportunity to revise the law that could legalize marijuana but decided to keep it because it was a way to target communities and discredit his opponents. This was used when he kept the negative views of marijuana to discredit hippies and black communities, many people who opposed the Vietnam War. This attributes to many of the fears that are brought on about the image of marijuana, which in reality are untrue.
