The Impacts of Marijuana Legalization on Economic and Medical Field

“In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care.” (HON. FRANCIS YOUNG – DEA ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE – 1988). A controversy that has been ongoing in the United State is the legalization of marijuana. What started as something involved in the “Just say no” campaign has rapidly become something that ⅔ of Americans (Pew Research Center) now believe should be legalized. With these numbers, round 59% say marijuana should be legalized for both recreational and medicinal use. For those wanting legalization for medical use alone, the number stands around 32% (Pew Research Center). As of now, the U.S. has a mix of fully legal, fully illegal and mixed through the states. As of October 2019, 12 states are fully legal, 10 are fully illegal and 28 are mixed (DISA.com). Full legalization of marijuana will prove to help the economy, benefit the medical needs, free up scarce police resources and reduce the lifetime of financial penalties.

There are many economic benefits to legalizing marijuana. To begin with, there will be an additional tax revenue. The revenue from Colorado alone has proven this. For both recreational and medicinal marijuana, Colorado brought in a little over 135 million dollars in both taxes and fees in 2016. This amount comes from sales that totaled around 996 million dollars (Investopedia). When a state as large as California is looked at, the numbers are believed to be around 15 billion in sales. From this number, a tax revenue of 3 billion dollars (Investopedia). Talk about helping the economy! Canada took the jump in legalizing marijuana and they are estimated to be a 5 billion dollar industry by 2020 (nytimes).

The creation of jobs is something that always helps to boost the economy. Legalizing marijuana means creating more jobs. A study done for the state of Nevada shows that a little more than 41,000 jobs have the potential to be created by 2024. In California, that number reaches 81,000. A report done by New Frontier states that by 2025, there could potentially be as many as 1.1 million jobs created. (Investopedia)

Legalizing marijuana allows for those interested in investing to jump on an opportunity. When something is legal on the national level, opportunities are opened. Companie can begin to have stock in the item which opens up to those who want to put money into that item. This is where investors come into the picture. And we all know how much investments help to grow the economy.

Another benefit to legalizing marijuana is the positive effects it has in the medical world. Now, more than ever, there is a war on prescription and recreational drug use. Many drugs labeled “prescription” have serious side effects, including death. The cost alone for prescription drugs are sky high. People struggle daily to afford the amount that these drug companies place on the price. Even more disturbing is the fact that due to many of these pain killers being “addictive”, there are limits to the refills that a patient can have, which lead to them needing to find pain relief by any means necessary. The risks from painkiller range from physical dependency to death. When marijuana is used as a painkiller, we see a very different outcome. For starters, when used medicinally, it has very little, if any, amounts of THC in it. THC stands for tetrahydrocannabinol which is what allows for the “high” through marijuana (health-harvard med. marijuana). What still remains is the cannabidiol, or CBD. The positives that have been documented from the use of CBD range from helping those struggling with sleep, to helping with epilepsy (a life threatening condition) and lessening the effects of chemo. When it comes to pain control, studies are showing the hugh positive impact the use of marijuana has. Especially in those suffering from chronic pain. In the cases of those who have nerve issues and/or pain, many of the drugs that exist sedate the patient entirely too much. Many who use marijuana in these cases claim to be able to go back to what they were doing without feeling as if they are unattached (health harvard med-marijuana). A powerful pain relieving drug that is causing an alarming number is called Fentanyl. The number of deaths that have come from this drug are devastating. “Fentanyl kills 11 Canadians a day...marijuana does not.” (nytimes). When helping multiple sclerosis, patients are finding relief from nerve pain. This disease destroys nerves, sometimes even leaves a person paralyzed. People with MS are in a constant state of pain. Those that have the devastating news of being diagnosed with cancer and have to go through the grueling and intense wear and tear of chemotherapy, have found comfort in medical marijuana. From helping with nausea, loss of appetite and pain relief. Yes, there are numerous drugs on the market that are currently being used for these issues, some are even being researched to find better drugs. Why are we continuing to spend millions of dollars on something where we have to continue to experiment and put those already in pain on some sort of “trial” to see how the drug works? We have a natural, perfectly harmless drug out there in CBD and it has been proven to help with all these issues. This comes from a study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine. (market watch). Could it be that there is so much money wrapped up in criminalizing marijuana and that the drug and insurance companies enjoy the money they make off of all these drugs that seem to destroy? Could be. But when we have a natural drug choice, every avenue should be tried to allow for an individual to have this option.

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THC and CBD are the 2 main drugs in the marijuana plant. According to the NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse), THC has been shown to help with both nausea and loss of appetite. It has also been shown to improve the control of muscles and reduce swelling. (drugabuse.gov). Some argue this because the THC is where the “high” comes from so they say it is not helpful. Well, remove the THC and you have the CBD left. What is interesting when this happens is that pain and inflammation are still reduced, epleptc seizures are more controlled, and pain is still drastically reduced (drugabuse.gov). In studies done on animals, rodents in particular, show that brain tumor cancer cells seem to have a slower growth rate when exposed to extracts from the marijuana plant (drugabuse.gov).

When it comes down to reasons people use marijuana for medical use, a new study shows that over 62% are treating chronic pain with it. The issue with the opioid epidemic is highly blames on the addictive properties in them and the increasing number of people with chronic pain. Marijuana does not seem to have the addictive property that these other drugs have, so why are we so afraid to use it? Research done by the Journal Health Affairs shows that using medical marijuana is both afer and a more successful treatment option then the use of opioids. (healthline.com). When it comes to the number of overdoses with cannabis, where are they? Relatively nowhere to be found. Opioids, however, were responsible for 33,091 deaths in 2015 according to the CDC (healthline.com).

The war on drugs is one that is being fought harder everyday. And with the growing number of police shortages being experienced, we need the little number of police we have for hard drugs and serious crime. It appears that marijuana use and possession is one of the main arrests. Drug arrests have increased each year from 2015 to 2018 while those arrested for violent crimes have decreased. (nytimes). When one thinks about that, it probably sounds ridiculous. For a little more than 10 years, the main reason people are being arrest is drug use. The main drug involved is marijuana.(nytimes) Tell me, what harm is marijuana actually doing? Shouldn't our resources be spent on actual criminals. What crime is truy coming out of marijuana use? Do we hear of overdoses or murders? Not really. Are people killing people in vehicles because they are under the influence of marijuana? Very rarely do we hear of crime dealing with marijuana. Are people overdosing on marijuana? The answer is almost always no! Yet we continue to waste what little police resources we have on arresting those using marijuana. What’s sad about this is that most of the arrests being made involve a small amount of amrijuana (nytimes.com) Even more upsetting is after the arrests are made, a large number are dismissed, never even making it to trial. Since 2017, DC had around 2 dozen raids. From those, a little over 250 were arrested. Out of those arrests, “prosecutors later dropped more than 80 percent of those cases.” (nbcwashington). Even more startling was that the leftover obes consisted of only 3 cases that actually made it to trial. Think of the hours spent by police in those 250 arrest and seeing only 3 go to trial. Obviously they may say that marjuana i bad but with many cases being dropped, it appears that even the law feels it is so very minor. Think about the tax dollars that American citizens are wasting on resources that are being used to arrest many only to see them be released.

We all know police dollars are funded through tax payers. It is said that each year, 3.6 billion is spent on seeing marijuana laws through. It is estimated that yearly arrests total 820,000 (insider.com). What harm were those in possession of the marijuana truly inflicting on others? What a waste of money and resources of the police department.

An interesting number is one from those arrested for possession of marijuana. A startling 90% have a clean conviction record before their first arrest (insider.com). A person's future financial life is put in jeopardy through something that should be legalized. Studies show that about 1.53 million dollars is earned over the lifetime of someone with a highschool degree. When someone has a record, it is estimated they will lose 360,000 dollars over their lifetime. Lets face it, when having a record, even a clean one before a marijuana conviction, finding a job is a struggle. Especially if you want a well paying job. Research shows that no matter the crime, having a “record” “reduces callbacks from prospective employers by around 50%. (insider.com). Most employers will not bother to see what that “record” is for. They simply just want to go to the next “clean” person. This means that a person with an actual crime on their record may be treated the same as a person convicted of carrying a small amount of marijuana in their pocket. With marijuana being legal now in some cases, there are people who still struggle with having something on their record that is now considered legal. Expunging the records of those with past marijuana convictions is something the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) has been pushing for. Even in states where it has been legalized, people with convictions are still experiencing the effects. Policies are being created to help those hide or expunge their record. In 2018, Amol Sinha, ACLU-NJ Executive Director, said “Forcing people to bear the consequences of a criminal conviction for an offense that’s no longer considered a crime simply prolongs the injustices of the failed, discriminatory drug war.” (insider.com)

Rising economic benefits, advances in the medical field, freeing up police resources and improving lifetime penalties are all positive reasons that need to be taken into consideration to support full marijuana legalization. The more we fight it, the more damage we do. We saw this first hand from the years during prohibition. With proper education, the benefits of marijuana legalization far outweigh the cons.