The Legalization And Regulation Of Marijuana - 2123 Words

Marijuana has had a long and sordid history in the United States. There is an ongoing debate in the country about the legalization and regulation of marijuana. The purpose of this report is to show the positive impact of the Federal legalization of marijuana. This report will show the benefits and drawbacks that will occur with Federal legalization. The first thing that will happen with legalization is the elimination of arrests for simple possession of marijuana. This will free up valuable law enforcement resources to target more serious and violent criminals. With the elimination of federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement, the federal government will save an estimated 3.5 billion dollars per year. This is strictly from†¦show more content†¦If we use the current model of Colorado for the nation, recreational and medicinal will be taxed at different rates. Medical marijuana will be taxed at 2.9 percent, while recreational will be taxed at 15 percent. This led to 16 m illion from medicinal use and 53 million from recreational use in tax revenue for the state of Colorado in 2014. These numbers are lower than the expected revenue; this is due to the fact that because of taxes it is still cheaper to buy black market marijuana. As production of legal marijuana continues to grow, the prices will drop. There will be more growers trying to sell their wares to dispensaries. This will lead to a higher quality of marijuana which the street dealers will have trouble keeping up with. With the legalization of marijuana a new industry has opened, the pot tourist. Colorado is now home to many recreational pot tours. This not only increases the tax revenue for the state, but also benefits other tourism related businesses. This is all dependent on a well regulated system. Regulation has many steps to follow to stay effective. The first step is preventing minors from purchasing marijuana. This is a major point of contention with the ongoing debate over legalizatio n. It is viewed by some that with legalization, minors will be able to obtain marijuana more easily. By using the data collected from Colorado, this has been disproven at least initially. A resident of Colorado will be able to