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Argumentative Essay On Legalizing Marijuana

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Argument Essay: The Legalization of Marijuana in the United States Should marijuana be legalized? The legalization of marijuana has been an extremely controversial case for decades in the United States, considering the fact that marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug, that also provides a wide variety of several benefits, legislators should highly reconsider marijuana’s classification. After eighty years of prohibition, and fifty years of criminalization that has resulted in little progress, marijuana should be legalized because too much money is spent on the war on drugs, billions of dollars will be gained in tax revenue and it is a naturally grown plant that can be used for numerous medicinal purposes. Tobacco kills more than 480,000 people a year in the United States; that is roughly 1,300 deaths per day. An estimated 88,000 people die a year from alcohol-related causes, and alcohol is involved in more homicides than every other substance. Legal …show more content…

"These tax revenue figures are truly impressive," says Mason Tvert, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project. "Just six years ago, Colorado received zero dollars in tax revenue from the sale of marijuana in the state." While $135 million is indeed a lot compared to $0, it looks less impressive compared to the state budget, which totals $26.4 billion this year. In other words, last year's marijuana money, $109 million of which came from taxes on recreational sales, $35 million of that was allocated to school construction. Legislators and local governments can impose their own taxes on recreational and medical marijuana."The additional tax revenue far exceeds the cost of regulating the system," Tvert says. "Regulating and taxing marijuana has been incredibly successful in Colorado, and it represents a model for other states to follow.” These numbers should push legislators into

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This argument, however, is utterly absurd. California faces historic deficits which could lead to higher taxes and fees for the public as well as more cuts to vital services if the state government does not balance the budget. There is 14 billion dollars worth of marijuana transactions every year in California, but none of that revenue is being taxed. Proposition 19 may cause billions of dollars in federal funding, but, it will enable state and local governments to tax marijuana, gaining even more money than the amount lost from federal funding. The State’s tax collector says taxing marijuana will boost our annual revenue thus, funding jobs, healthcare, public safety, parks, roads, transportation, and even schools for children's’ education.

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One of the biggest problems with the Colorado marijuana tax is it keeps legal customers on the black market because of the large price difference. Almost two years after the first retail marijuana store opened in Colorado, sellers are still fighting black market dealers, but that could end-by July of 2017. Governor John Hickenlooper signed a provision to lower the marijuana tax from 10 percent to 8 percent. Lowering the Recreational Rates The Colorado marijuana tax is a sin tax, this type of tax is important in balancing a state’s overall tax burden.

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The taxes could be used very usefully. Each state has their view and estimate of the tax revenue coming from marijuana. For example, Colorado campaign for school constructions, and Washington campaign for health care, education, research, and substance-abuse

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and article ‘Potential Tax Revenue from a Regulated Marijuana Market: A Meaningful Revenue Source’ by Michael R. Caputo and Brian J. Ostrom states, “The demand for marijuana has created a multi-billion dollar industry.” If the Drug Enforcement Administration would allow marijuana to become legal, it could potentially boost our economy due to taxation, create employment through marijuana dispensary collectives as well as stores, and provide another source of revenue in each state. “... A consumption of 13,600 metric tons would entail 38 million people smoking one gram each, 365 days a year ” The concept of taxing marijuana would essentially be exactly the same as how the government taxes cigarettes or alcohol today.

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1296 Words | 6 Pages

In the state of Colorado in the U.S marijuana is completely legal for both casual and medical use. Many had speculations over if the experiment of legalizing the drug in a state would be a success, the doubters were proved wrong as it has been a huge success especially from the economic point of view. In 2014, retail cannabis sales raised some $76 million in tax revenue and fees, according to data compiled by the Colorado Department of Revenue (ARMENTANO, 2015). Marijuana sales in the past year totaled some $700 million (ARMENTANO, 2015). If marijuana was not legalized this revenue would have gone to the black market where most of the marijuana was being sold, but instead can be used to stimulate the economy and raise tax dollars.

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But the financial benefits of legalization go beyond taxing the sale of marijuana and keeping drug money out of the hands of criminals. All across the nation, wherever the drug is illegal, state and local governments spend enormous sums of money on the enforcement of marijuana laws, the prosecution of offenders, and incarceration of the convicted. The Wall Street Journal estimates that the American taxpayer spends $40 billion per year on the administrative costs associated with the criminalization of marijuana (Becker). On the state level, we can again look to the example of Colorado. Conservative estimates by the Colorado Center on Law and Policy show that legalization will save the state $40 million per year by no longer administering marijuana laws (Drug Policy Alliance).

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531 Words | 3 Pages

Firstly when marijuana is legalized in a state the state loses a payment from the national government. So the state has to set a tax on marijuana to make up for the money the state loses for legalizing it. For example, Colorado legalized marijuana in November 2012. As a result from 2013-2014 Colorado made 44 million dollars from taxing, licensing, and other fees.

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Colorado has dedicated a majority of the marijuana tax revenue to school construction, with the remainder of the money being placed into enforcement and general state funds. Washington dedicated 60 percent of its marijuana tax revenue to substance abuse prevention, research, education and healthcare. The remaining money was dedicated to general state funding and local budgets. Although contributing to the general fund does not impact it in a tremendous way, social services and other programs could be strengthened. By improving said programs, people could be helped and new jobs could be created.

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And tax revenue from legal marijuana sales in Colorado, for example, was over $69 million in 2015 (Basu,

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In the first 6 months of 2015, Colorado pulled in 60.7 million dollars in marijuana taxes. Some people argue that cannabis should not be legal because it is no better than any other drug. Doctors prescribe Xanax, Oxycontin, Adderall etc. even though they are highly addictive and it is possible to overdose on them. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.

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California’s largest cash crop is marijuana in the state and makes about fourteen billion dollars annually (Belville, Norml, 2010). If it became a legal substance, this cash crop could potentially help our country out of its debt. In Colorado, marijuana is legal, so this newly found business makes money pretty fast and easily. So far, this experimental legalization within few states have been helpful. The marijuana business creates tons of extra tax revenue that they didn’t have before, which in Colorado’s case they have been dedicating it towards bettering the funding of schools, marijuana educational campaigns, marijuana inspectors and regulators (Healy, 2015).

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1244 Words | 5 Pages

The first four states to legalize recreational marijuana reaped over $200 million in combined tax revenue in that year alone. Also, studies estimate that illegal marijuana is a $36 billion industry in the United States. Not only does this extra money help to boost the economy, but it alleviates many hard decisions between budget cuts among law-enforcement, education, and other essential departments of the United States. With President Donald Trump’s proposed budget cut of education by 5.3% or $3.6 billion, many public schools will have to reduce their resources because of a lack of funding. The market for marijuana is growing and shows no signs of stopping.

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765 Words | 4 Pages

Taxing as well is a large portion of economic funding basically any money that is earned in each house hold is then then same amount of money that travels back to the economy. The average trade of marijuana is estimated at $113 billion, which is about $45 billion in taxes yearly the government throws away at least $1 trillion dollars trying to find suspects sellers and users of marijuana in legalized states. Also the government would save about $6 billion per year if they taxed marijuana just like alcohol and tobacco which is about $13.7 billion per year. Washington placed a 25% tax on marijuana and Colorado, 15% tax and a 10% sales tax on marijuana. “These percentages are expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for each state, including a projected $500 million for Washington alone by 2015.”

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831 Words | 4 Pages

This amount was generated in the course of 2 years, and every one of those dollars goes directly back into the bottom line of Colorado’s budget. In a study done by Jon Gettman (2007) “Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws”, he estimates that the tax rates put on pot could bring in over $6.2 billion annually for the

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1349 Words | 6 Pages

With all of the advantages of the plant in cooking, medical uses, and cleaning, you can always find someway to use a natural plant that is found in the ground to your advantage. Also one reason that the government made it illegal is because you can’t put a tax on something that you can grow in your own home if you want. But since not everyone knows how to grow marijuana, they can go to the store and buy it where the government can tax the dispensary just like any other store. Since Denver made marijuana legal, the dispensaries have now taken more stores than Starbucks coffee. With these dispensaries, the government has made approximately $70 Million (Bindel,14).

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