Kick Back, Relax, and Legalize Marijuana

Public support for legalizing marijuana has gained traction and for the first time in the history of the United States. In the latest nationwide survey of 1,501 people polled in mid-March about the subject 52 percent of those surveyed favored making weed legal, and 72% said that efforts to enforce anti-marijuana laws bring more cost than benefit.

Medical marijuana available through prescription only gets used to treat a variety of disorders including the loss of appetite, chronic pain, anxiety, arthritis, cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, Multiple Sclerosis, insomnia, ADHD Epilepsy, inflammation, migraines and Crohn’s disease. The drug is also used to ease pain and improve quality of life for people who are terminally ill.

Even better with legalization that it would strike an enormous blow to organized crime, free up the overflowing prison system and reduce the violence along the Mexican-American border.

In the state of California alone new tax revenues from sales would exceed $1 billion. New tax revenues from legalized marijuana sales could exceed $1 billion. It would give a valuable source of  revenue for the additional 49 states and be a major boost to the economy.

If legalized marijuana gets regulated, an estimated $8 billion would be saved annually in government spending on law enforcement, which includes the FBI and border security.

Last November, with voters in Colorado and Washington state leading the way, ballot initiatives legalizing, taxing, and regulating recreational marijuana use passed for the first time. An Oregon effort would almost certainly have prevailed, too, if proponents there hadn’t overreached with toxic legislative language that scared off donors and earned ridicule from the media.

Now that two states have legalized recreational marijuana use, dope smokers there can light up without the usual paranoid fear that the cops are at the door. The only thing they have to deal with is the taxes on it. “I’ve seen some estimates in the high tens of millions, as much as $100 million for [Colorado],” said Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), who’s pushing a federal legalization in Congress. Money like that could make a big difference, he said — including a “substantial dent in needed school improvements, particularly in poorer districts.”

According to a new Pew Research Center survey, over the next four years, the federal government is likely to decide to treat the drug more like alcohol, passing tax-and-regulate legislation after the states force its hand.

The times are forever changing. What was taboo yesterday, will be the next big thing tomorrow. The benefits of legalization outweigh any risks. The government is spending exorbitant amounts of money to fight this issue when they could be collecting billions from taxation.