Legalizing Marijuana: Is it Beneficial?
By Owen Hickerson and Harley Farkas
Marijuana, commonly known as weed or cannabis, is a drug widely known for being legal in Colorado and Washington. Medical marijuana is legal in over 12 other states and is almost entirely illegal in every other state. The original purpose of the legalization in Colorado and Washington was to fund schools and public areas such as parks and wildlife centers. However the tax revenues from marijuana dispensaries has not been often used to help pay for school and park beautification, even though the tax is 70% of all profits made from marijuana sales. In the past four years the amendment has not been changed, nor are there any plans from the state government to change it. However with the law came multiple pros and cons. Here’s why we should and shouldn’t legalize marijuana in other states.
Recreational marijuana is mostly bought and used by adults. However, the Amendment made it much easy for minors to get a hold of marijuana. As Amendment 64 (the amendment that legalized marijuana) was going through the voting process, and eventually placed on the Colorado ballot, adults could legally purchase marijuana. However, adults have been illegally passing on legally purchased marijuana to minors.
A pro of this easy supply was it caused some teens to stop smoking, as Scientific American said “The number began to drop from what they use to be, due to the danger factor having been eliminated.” A theory for this is it had become a simple task and the numbers of minors that smoked on a regular basis was dropping because without a challenge a lot of minors said it was no longer fun and rebellious against their parents. Although the legalization of marijuana made it easy to get, it also made it harder to be “cool” in the teenage community.
In the past four years the influx of people to Colorado has been drastic. People move from all around the country to attempt to have easy access to marijuana. A sign this is most likely happening is the amount of traffic and people visiting that has become massively larger. Due to this influx of people, the number of homeless people has also increased. As of 2014 Denver, Colorado has the 24th biggest homeless population in the world, where as in 2010 Denver was the city with the 8th lowest homeless population in America. The reason that homeless people have begun to accumulate in Denver is because people come for the easy access to drugs. They could come from anywhere, some come for work in the pot industry, however many have come for the ability to walk into a shop and pick up an ⅛ of an ounce with ease.
But what are the benefits for this mind-altering plant? Marijuana is sold at stores called “dispensaries” and people can go there to purchase many Marijuana related products, including the actual plant. The sales tax goes straight to the state’s government and is used for various types of things. Colorado passed Amendment 64 on November 6, 2012 but commercial sales of marijuana to the general public didn’t happen till January 1, 2014 and since the measure passed the state has seen a boost in the tax base. Just last year the state made over $700 million in tax revenues from dispensaries and Scientific American predicts the sales are estimated to go up to $1 billion by 2017.
So where does this money all go? Colorado Amendment 64 decrees that most of the money is dedicated towards schools. The first $40 million dollars raised went to a Colorado program called Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST). This program distributes the money equally to local schools and educational programs. This most recent year $2.6 million of marijuana tax revenues were added on top of the $40 million raised in 2014. That money will go to the $5.6 billion cost to run schools in Colorado. So far the money has been sitting in the bank and not spent on school. But Colorado plans to distribute it all by the end of 2016. The extra money from the taxes are free to be spent by state.
But money isn’t the only benefit from legalizing marijuana. A lot of the money is used for improvements in infrastructure, such as new parks and road repairs. Also, legalizing marijuana creates hundreds of jobs for the state. Budtenders, advertisers, and dispensary owners are just some few jobs that the marijuana industry creates, and most of them are good paying too. The average Denver budtender, a dispensary employee, makes $70,000 annually. The legalization also has made the drug safer and more under control. This is because marijuana is sold in dispensaries and those stores regulate and maintain the plants. So the buyer knows what they’re buying and exactly what’s in the strain of marijuana, so no sketchy drug dealers or back alleys.
As for who plans for more laws like amendment 64, multiple states have begun to consider and implement them into their ballots. These laws would be adding medical marijuana and/or recreational marijuana. For this the states have broken up into three categories, most likely, considering, and no way. In Nevada, Massachusetts, California, Arizona, Maine they are most likely going to legalize marijuana in the next one to two years, these areas are very eastern focused. The reason they hope to legalize marijuana is because simply the number of of signatures to put it on the ballot exceeded 402, 468. As for Connecticut, Michigan, and Rhode Island, they are considering to have it put on the ballot within the next 5-10 years, they have chosen to keep it off the ballot for now because there are still some serious debates going on, in order to figure out whether or not to sign it. As for our last group Delaware, Maryland, New York, Missouri, and Vermont there is hardly any chance that they will putting them on the ballot in the next few terms.
When people think about Marijuana they think about a drug that alters your brain's chemistry and makes you an unmotivated stoner, but life is a lot broader than people think. Legalizing marijuana has effects on our society that are unpredictable at best. We may see this drug as an endless bad decision for teens, but when is alcohol a good choice for a teen. In no way is marijuana an okay thing to smoke at a constant rate, however neither is alcohol yet the average adult drinks one too two alcoholic beverages on a daily basis, and just over 40% of Americans smoke up to a pack of cigarettes weekly. Our society is filled with drugs and all that the legalization of marijuana does is make it easier to get.
By Owen Hickerson and Harley Farkas
Marijuana, commonly known as weed or cannabis, is a drug widely known for being legal in Colorado and Washington. Medical marijuana is legal in over 12 other states and is almost entirely illegal in every other state. The original purpose of the legalization in Colorado and Washington was to fund schools and public areas such as parks and wildlife centers. However the tax revenues from marijuana dispensaries has not been often used to help pay for school and park beautification, even though the tax is 70% of all profits made from marijuana sales. In the past four years the amendment has not been changed, nor are there any plans from the state government to change it. However with the law came multiple pros and cons. Here’s why we should and shouldn’t legalize marijuana in other states.
Recreational marijuana is mostly bought and used by adults. However, the Amendment made it much easy for minors to get a hold of marijuana. As Amendment 64 (the amendment that legalized marijuana) was going through the voting process, and eventually placed on the Colorado ballot, adults could legally purchase marijuana. However, adults have been illegally passing on legally purchased marijuana to minors.
A pro of this easy supply was it caused some teens to stop smoking, as Scientific American said “The number began to drop from what they use to be, due to the danger factor having been eliminated.” A theory for this is it had become a simple task and the numbers of minors that smoked on a regular basis was dropping because without a challenge a lot of minors said it was no longer fun and rebellious against their parents. Although the legalization of marijuana made it easy to get, it also made it harder to be “cool” in the teenage community.
In the past four years the influx of people to Colorado has been drastic. People move from all around the country to attempt to have easy access to marijuana. A sign this is most likely happening is the amount of traffic and people visiting that has become massively larger. Due to this influx of people, the number of homeless people has also increased. As of 2014 Denver, Colorado has the 24th biggest homeless population in the world, where as in 2010 Denver was the city with the 8th lowest homeless population in America. The reason that homeless people have begun to accumulate in Denver is because people come for the easy access to drugs. They could come from anywhere, some come for work in the pot industry, however many have come for the ability to walk into a shop and pick up an ⅛ of an ounce with ease.
But what are the benefits for this mind-altering plant? Marijuana is sold at stores called “dispensaries” and people can go there to purchase many Marijuana related products, including the actual plant. The sales tax goes straight to the state’s government and is used for various types of things. Colorado passed Amendment 64 on November 6, 2012 but commercial sales of marijuana to the general public didn’t happen till January 1, 2014 and since the measure passed the state has seen a boost in the tax base. Just last year the state made over $700 million in tax revenues from dispensaries and Scientific American predicts the sales are estimated to go up to $1 billion by 2017.
So where does this money all go? Colorado Amendment 64 decrees that most of the money is dedicated towards schools. The first $40 million dollars raised went to a Colorado program called Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST). This program distributes the money equally to local schools and educational programs. This most recent year $2.6 million of marijuana tax revenues were added on top of the $40 million raised in 2014. That money will go to the $5.6 billion cost to run schools in Colorado. So far the money has been sitting in the bank and not spent on school. But Colorado plans to distribute it all by the end of 2016. The extra money from the taxes are free to be spent by state.
But money isn’t the only benefit from legalizing marijuana. A lot of the money is used for improvements in infrastructure, such as new parks and road repairs. Also, legalizing marijuana creates hundreds of jobs for the state. Budtenders, advertisers, and dispensary owners are just some few jobs that the marijuana industry creates, and most of them are good paying too. The average Denver budtender, a dispensary employee, makes $70,000 annually. The legalization also has made the drug safer and more under control. This is because marijuana is sold in dispensaries and those stores regulate and maintain the plants. So the buyer knows what they’re buying and exactly what’s in the strain of marijuana, so no sketchy drug dealers or back alleys.
As for who plans for more laws like amendment 64, multiple states have begun to consider and implement them into their ballots. These laws would be adding medical marijuana and/or recreational marijuana. For this the states have broken up into three categories, most likely, considering, and no way. In Nevada, Massachusetts, California, Arizona, Maine they are most likely going to legalize marijuana in the next one to two years, these areas are very eastern focused. The reason they hope to legalize marijuana is because simply the number of of signatures to put it on the ballot exceeded 402, 468. As for Connecticut, Michigan, and Rhode Island, they are considering to have it put on the ballot within the next 5-10 years, they have chosen to keep it off the ballot for now because there are still some serious debates going on, in order to figure out whether or not to sign it. As for our last group Delaware, Maryland, New York, Missouri, and Vermont there is hardly any chance that they will putting them on the ballot in the next few terms.
When people think about Marijuana they think about a drug that alters your brain's chemistry and makes you an unmotivated stoner, but life is a lot broader than people think. Legalizing marijuana has effects on our society that are unpredictable at best. We may see this drug as an endless bad decision for teens, but when is alcohol a good choice for a teen. In no way is marijuana an okay thing to smoke at a constant rate, however neither is alcohol yet the average adult drinks one too two alcoholic beverages on a daily basis, and just over 40% of Americans smoke up to a pack of cigarettes weekly. Our society is filled with drugs and all that the legalization of marijuana does is make it easier to get.