Legalizing Marijuana

The legalization of marijuana would be a step in the right direction for the U.S. Slowly, states in the U.S. are starting to legalize recreational marijuana, and over half the states have legalized medical marijuana. Many problems can be solved if marijuana was legalized in the U.S, our law enforcement would be able to step up and take care of bigger crimes, the U.S. would make money if they tax marijuana like they tax tobacco and alcohol, legalizing marijuana lowers the amount of young teens who use it.

Legalizing marijuana would help the U.S economically . Some states in the U.S. have legalized marijuana and have had very good benefits from it. After legalization Colorado’s economy skyrocketed, it was ranked one of the fastest growing economies. Also the unemployment rates in Colorado are at the lowest they’ve been since 2008. In the that marijuana was legalized in Colorado, more than $40 million dollars were brought in from marijuana tax alone. “The 11 states least likely to legalize would miss out on an estimated $1.2 billion annually.” There is an election coming to legalize marijuana and there are states that are least likely to legalize it, if they don’t they could be losing the chance to make this money. Legalization would be very helpful to the U.S. as a whole, raising the economy from all the money that the states are making the taxed marijuana sales.

With recreational marijuana being illegal in most states, police are spending time arresting lots of people for marijuana offenses. In 2014 there was one arrest every 51 seconds because of a marijuana offense. All this time police are taking to arrest marijuana offenders they could be taking to save someone’s, or stop a rape. One woman is raped every 2 seconds in America, that could be stopped if we weren’t spending so much time stopping people from smoking marijuana. “Police make about 700,000 arrests per year for marijuana offenses.” “Roughly 600,000 or 87% of marijuana arrests are for nothing more than possession of small amounts.” All of these people that are being arrested for marijuana offenses are taking up jail space and costing America more money. If you do some math you find the average cost for one inmate is $31,286 a year, if we say the people who were arrested for marijuana offenses stay in jail for one year, the cost to take care of them is about $21 billion dollars. Relating this back to why marijuana should be legal, marijuana legalization could give police more time to investigate bigger crimes that would help us, citizens of the U.S, feel like we live in a safer place.

We all know that kids want to be rebellious these days, so they go out and find someone to supply them with what they want. The legalization of marijuana could change that. If marijuana was legal then people that sneak around to get marijuana to then sell it to teens would have no reason because the could just go the store and purchase it over the counter. “In 1999, 47.2 percent of high schoolers had reported ever using marijuana in their lifetime. That number plummeted to 36.8 percent in 2009.” Lots of teens are just starting to flat out disapprove of marijuana. With lots of kids not being able to smoke marijuana at a young age they might see the trend die down as they get closer to the legal age if it was legal.

In conclusion, marijuana should be legalized in all U.S. states for many reasons, but here’s a few. The legalization of marijuana would help the economy throughout the whole U.S. if it was taxed like tobacco and alcohol products, with marijuana being illegal in most states police are spending lots of time busting people for marijuana offenses when they should be spending more time on bigger crimes, lastly if marijuana was legal it would be harder for young teens to get their hands on it making them lose interest by the time they reach the legal age.