Legalizing and Taxing marijuana has its ups and its downs. The United States federal government makes cannabis illegal to sell and own. Many States now are legalizing the selling of marijuana and owning of it even though Federal Law makes it illegal but State and Federal government are separate. Taxing marijuana would be a huge revenue producer for taxpayers. You can tax it as much as you want.
When its comes to taxing marijuana the state can have any tax they want on it. States can profit millions of dollars off this tax. The tax is about 13 percent in colorado on weed. When legalized in colorado in january alone it made roughly 2 million dollars in taxes. This presents a huge expansion in anything tax money pays for. You can build and repair more roads and pay workers of the state more. The taxes you pay for state may go fire dept. police dept. amd many other things that may benifit you in one way or snother.
“Marijuana should be removed from the criminal justice system and regulated in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco. Legalizing and regulating marijuana will bring the nation's largest cash crop under the rule of law, creating jobs and economic opportunities in the formal economy instead of the illicit market. Scarce law enforcement resources that could be better used to protect public safety would be preserved while reducing corrections and court costs. State and local governments would acquire significant new sources of tax revenue from regulating marijuana sales.” (Drug Policy Alliance)
Comparing alcohol to marijuana and the effects of it are very different. Marijuana is much more safe then alcohol in the the way your body reacts and you decision making. The way you think and thought process is different. Viole...
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...ve already seen this in colorado with weed shop. They are making lots of money along with the government collecting all the taxes upwards to 15 percent plus more. The government can charge as much as they want.They know people will pay for marijuana. People will pay for weed if its legal to. “37 shop owners reported 5 million dollars in sales since it has been legalized.” (RT.Com) A lot of possibility for success and also a really big economic. everyone just wants to get a little high.
work cited
http://www.fox21news.com/news/story.aspx?id=610990#.U0Lc0TK9KK1
http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana-legalization-and-regulation
ivn.us/2014/03/15/colorado-recreational-marijuana-tax-revenue-hits-2m-first-month/?utm_source=ivn&utm_medium=featured&utm_content=prevnext&utm_campaign=opt-beta-v-1-0
y W. E. Messamore
http://rt.com/usa/colorado-marijuana-five-million-319/
Marijuana will be taxed just like alcohol in the United States if legalized . Rules and regulations will be issued by those states to make prevention of drugged driving. There will be laws and regulations to buy marijuana in general . United States history has involved marijuana since our first president . If this were to be the marijuana act would be lifted and the law would no longer be in effect same rules and regulations as california , colorado or washington. Cancer patients would be one of the greatest profiters from the legalization and the revenue from taxing it will come. Colorado’s revenue made 316 million off of medical purposes and 318 million in recreational use. With tax revenue like that we would be able to provide better education and projects for for school systems as I have mentioned previously(Colorado 's Legal Weed). Crime rate as went down in most of the places that have legalized it as well for petty crimes such as small amounts of marijuana and petty theft. The outlook on marijuana is totally different from now and when Ronald Reagan said that marijuana is one of the most dangerous drugs in the world.Marijuana was served for the different purposes then and now by the people. Back then they were smoking and mixing other drugs in with the marijuana which is the reason for legal marijuana. If be have a designated area to purchase their marijuana
Lately it seems that drug policy and the war on drugs has been in the headlines quite a lot. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the policies that the United States government takes against illegal drugs are coming into question. The mainstream media is catching on to the message of organizations and individuals who have long been considered liberal "Counter Culture" supporters. The marijuana question seems to be the most prevalent and pressed of the drugs and issues that are currently being addressed. The messages of these organizations and individuals include everything from legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, to full-unrestricted legalization of the drug. Of course, the status quo of vote seeking politicians and conservative policy makers has put up a strong resistance to this "new" reform lobby. The reasons for the resistance to the changes in drug policies are multiple and complex. The issues of marijuana’s possible negative effects, its use as a medical remedy, the criminality of distribution and usage, and the disparity in the enforcement of current drug laws have all been brought to a head and must be addressed in the near future. It is apparent that it would be irresponsible and wrong for the government to not evaluate it’s current general drug policies and perhaps most important, their marijuana policy. With the facts of racial disparity in punishment, detrimental effects, fiscal strain and most importantly, the history of the drug, the government most certainly must come to the conclusion that they must, at the very least, decriminalize marijuana use and quite probably fully legalize it.
Ever since marijuana’s introduction to the United States of America in 1611, controversy of the use and legalization of the claimed-to-be Schedule I drug spread around the nation. While few selective states currently allow marijuana’s production and distribution, the remaining states still skepticize the harmlessness and usefulness of this particular drug; therefore, it remains illegal in the majority of the nation. The government officials and citizens of the opposing states believe the drug creates a threat to citizens due to its “overly-harmful” effects mentally and physically and offers no alternate purposes but creating troublesome addicts hazardous to society; however, they are rather misinformed about marijuana’s abilities. While marijuana has a small amount of negligible effects to its users, the herbal drug more importantly has remarkable health benefits, and legalizing one of the oldest and most commonly known drugs would redirect America’s future with the advantages outweighing the disadvantages.
Marijuana has an immediate effect during and for about 2 hours after smoking. With alcohol, users feel slight effects after just one drink, and recover depending on the amount the person drank, how much they weigh, and how much they had to eat before ingesting the alcohol. Immediate effects of use are slurred speech, decreased inhibitions, poor judgment, and lack of motor coordination. Marijuana causes red eyes, dry mouth, increased appetite, slowed reaction, paranoia, hallucinations, decreased social inhibitions, and memory loss. Drinking heavy amounts of alcohol can lead to a coma or even death. A person would have to smoke 40,000 times the amount to get high to overdose, so it is practically impossible. Alcohol is responsible for over 100,000 deaths per year. Marijuana kills less than 10,000 per year.
In the last fiscal year alone, marijuana brought 70 million dollars in tax revenue in the state of Colorado. Colorado was the first state to legalize marijuana recreationally in the fall of 2012, and since then three other states and the District of Columbia have legalized the plant. Based off of sales in states that have legalized marijuana recreationally, if all fifty states legalized marijuana, they would bring in a combined 3 billion dollars in tax revenue yearly. That much money from sales of the plant alone could help to stabilize the suffering economy. Moreover, the American Government would be able to control the plant and distribute it how ever they see fit. The economic growth marijuana legalization could bring to the United States outweighs any argument against
The legalization of marijuana has the potential to bring our economy back to life if it were to be legalized. There are a number of ways in which legalization could improve the economy. We could use the revenue from taxes on marijuana to provide for a better quality of life for Americans in need. Legalizing marijuana would also save us money by cutting the cost of putting someone in jail for harmless marijuana related charges that waste tax money. Also it would put more money into circulation by keeping the profits off the black market and into the legal and taxed market. With an estimated twenty-five million active marijuana smokers in America that consume nearly thirty-one million pounds of marijuana each year, we are missing out on extreme revenue that this country cannot afford to go without for much longer (Krulick).
Legalization of marijuana has become an increasingly popular topic for debate in society with “sentiment in favor of legalization [increasing] by 20 [percentage] points in just over a decade,” bringing support for legalization to 52% (Dionne and Galston). The most common arguments for reforming current legislation are the following: enforcement wastes public resources, taxation can provide a new source of revenue, and enforcement of current laws is discriminatory (Dionne and Galston). It is necessary to look at the impact on the primary stakeholders by analyzing the various harms and benefits through application of the ethical theories of utilitarianism and deontology, in order to determine the solution that will result in the best possible outcome.
Marijuana should be legalized for both recreational and medicinal use because the US economy can reap significant benefits from legalization as well as create an influx of jobs and also to reduce street and gang disputes relating to marijuana. Also, marijuana should be legalized because it has been dealt an unfair hand by society and is justifiably safer than most know it to be. First, marijuana should be legalized in the US for both recreational and medicinal purposes because there is a very substantial profit that can be made from it. By placing a tax on Marijuana, similar to what the Government has done with various alcohol and tobacco products, The US Government can use America’s largest cash crop to its advantage. Perhaps even plans using such a tax can be set up to start paying the 16 trillion dollar debt the United States has accumulated. Further, such a tax could be on a state to state basis, allowing for competition and to keep the economy going. As well as more jobs in each state being created as a result of legalization. The result is a potential chain reaction: legalization in all states results in a tax the government can make a profit off of, also more business competition and an influx in new jobs; National debt and unemployment go down, the economy goes up. In an exclusive interview with CNN and John Hudak, editor of the Fixgov blog said that 2014 is a year to “ wait and see” when he was asked if he thought other states besides Colorado and Washington would legalize marijuana for recreational use. Hudak also commented on “marijuana tourism”, which was the influx of people traveling to Colorado to buy Marijuana "It has to have a real impact on those local economies ... If marijuana tourism can become something tha...
You will be in amazement at how long our government has despised such a great thing. Let’s begin with the US revenue gains that would occur from legalizing marijuana. Marijuana Offers Extreme US Revenue Boost in several Different Ways. Shouldn’t we want to collect revenue due to taxation other than criminalization? Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should instead be taxed to support beneficial government programs....
The legalization of marijuana will have a huge impact on the economics of the United States to the point that I feel that government will assist in the continuation of these companies. If it is passed in the government the selling of marijuana could generate millions of dollars in tax revenue. Colorado is the latest state that has approved the selling of marijuana for recreational use. This topic has been tossed around by the officials for years now. Legislators in Colorado have “consider excise and sales taxes on marijuana of up to 30 percent combined” (Frosch, 2013). With the rapidly growing market and marijuana industry rules and regulations had to be put into place. Even this tax charge needs to be implemented and enforced. “These taxes are set high enough to finance the administration of new laws, but not so high that customers are driven back to the black market” (Frosch, 2013). There are many financial benefits as a state can help pay for the enforcement and other fundamental issues. One bad thing about taxing so high is that you can simply crowd out the regulated market. It is important to find the right balan...
With America’s war on drugs being highly focused on the increased use of marijuana, there is not much time for officers to focus on crimes of greater importance. Crimes related to illegal marijuana use are becoming more problematic due to drug deals that go bad, occasionally ending with murder. It has been estimated that one marijuana-related arrest is made every 42 seconds. With marijuana being illegal, keeping crime related activities under control cost the United States approximately twenty billion dollars per year (Sledge). According to Brian Bremner and Vincent Del Giudice, “A 2010 study by the libertarian Cato Institute, forecasted that states could save $17.4 billion annually from reduced drug enforcement costs and increased tax revenue, assuming marijuana production and sales were legal nationwide” (11). Several law enforcement hours are exhausted with pursing, questioning, and arresting citizens that are in possession of or consuming marijuana. There would be a decrease in the number of misdemeanor possession cases that are pending hearing. These cases would be dismissed, decreasing costs affiliated with each case. There are excessive numbers of people who remain incarcerated for nonviolent crimes related to illegal marijuana use. Legalizing marijuana would allow these people to be released, opening jail space for the true criminals. Legalizing marijuana would free up law enforcement officers from focusing on illegal marijuana use and allow focus to be put on more serious
Have you encountered a friend or family member who has benefitted from the use of marijuana? Perhaps it was you yourself who has found the use of the plant to be beneficial to your everyday life. Marijuana has long been popular for both its medicinal and recreational properties and in the last few years has become a widely discussed topic in the public. Many states have adopted the idea of legalization in varying levels and have left the decision up to the voters. Although many individuals in the United States contend the potential negative effects of marijuana use or exposure, marijuana should be legalized on a federal level as it has proven to make a tremendous difference in the lives of those facing health issues while also creating many financial benefits and has paved a road towards reversing the judgement of marijuana users through decriminalization efforts.
Marijuana can be used as a source of income for our society. Each state that has legalized marijuana for recreational uses has increased revenue from taxing the product itself. The first state to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes, Colorado, has grossed almost 40 million dollars in tax revenue for that
If marijuana were legalized, it is though that the amount of drug related crime would decrease, and the amount of money to be made off of marijuana would be outstandingly high. For example, Colorado has made over 184 million dollars off the taxes of marijuana. Another example of a state making good money off taxing the sales of marijuana would be “California’s 2013 marijuana harvest for example, [which was worth $31 billion, and if recreational use of marijuana is legalized, a large portion of the annual marijuana harvest will begin generating tax revenues for the state] (Harper 2). This is an insane amount of money that can help the state tremendously. If Illinois did this, it would decrease the amount of sales of illegal marijuana on the black market, and the state would be able to tax these
First of all, marijuana can have many positive effects on crime. Legalizing marijuana can actually decrease crime rates in the U.S. This past year, it was counted that 6.9 million people are inside the American’s jails and prisons. 60,000 of these individuals were there for marijuana according to one study. With the legalization of marijuana, it would cut the amount of tax we pay for these jails and prisons, costing us a total of 1.2 billion. Last year a total of 7 to 10 billion dollars was used towards arresting and processing against marijuana. The big picture here is that 90% of those arrests were just for possession. It is crazy that as a country we spend most of our time trying to stop the biggest drug in America when it is just wasting our money. There are less arrests on violent crimes than marijuana charges combined. These “violent crimes” consist of assault, rape, robbery, and murder. How awful is it that we waste our time on this drug when there are so many other bigger problems we could be solving or people to be saved. Cocaine and heroin arrests have actually decreased by 1/3 from 1991 to 2000. While marijuana has more than 700,000 people are ar...