As of 2018 several states across the country have either legalized (the use of recreational marijuana) or decriminalized the use of marijuana. To be more specific, eight states, including the state of Massachusetts, allow the use of recreational and medical marijuana, twenty-two states allow only the medical use of the psychoactive drug, and fifteen states allow only the sale of CBD, which is an extract from the plant without its psychoactive part. What does legalization and decriminalization mean, and how do they differ? In general terms legalization means that an individual cannot be arrested, prosecuted, or face criminal charges for a committed act, in this case the use of marijuana. However, legalization doesn’t mean that a person can do …show more content…
In the case of marijuana, the governments will allow its citizens to posses a small amount of the drug for personal consumption purposes. However, mass-production, transportation, and sale of marijuana is prohibited. During recent years there has been a debate on whether the recreational use of marijuana should be decriminalized throughout the whole nation, or rather each state to make their own independent decision. By recreational use it is understood that a drug is used without medical justification, and that its main purpose is to alter the state of an individual’s consciousness. In order to pick a side, we should look at potential outcomes. On the positive side, it is believed that decriminalizing marijuana would boost revenue for the state and local governments in the form of taxes, which would be applied to its distribution and sale. Another benefit would be safety control. As we all know most people obtain marijuana from the street, without any kind of test or qualified supervision it is hard to tell what dangerous substances are mixed in with the drug, in most cases dealers will mix marijuana with other substances to either reach a higher level of effects, or simply to make it more