“That is not a drug. It’s a leaf,” says Arnold Schwarzenegger, a successful actor who won the Mr. Olympia title seven times. Marijuana is the most commonly used drug in America, with an estimated 2.2 million users each month. In 1970 marijuana became illegal under Richard Nixon to restore “law and order” to America and has been illegal since. Flash forward to the 1990s, when it was legalized in a few states for medical use for cannabis patients. Now in 2018 9 states and Washington D.C have legalized recreational marijuana, bringing us closer to a legalized nation. After all these years, it’s time for recreational marijuana to be legalized for its health benefits, its economy boosts, and to protect our citizens.
Firstly, legalizing marijuana
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Canada is a country considering legalizing marijuana and is foreseen to make big bucks from legalizing weed, from the tax of marijuana they could fund government projects like roads and parks. “According to recent estimates from Marijuana Business Daily, an industry publication, annual sales of Canada's recreational marijuana market could range between $2.3 billion and $4.5 billion by 2021 “ (CNN) In response, this money would be made by taxing all marijuana sold at dispensaries, as they currently do with cigarettes and alcohol. Also, marijuana dispensaries would create an abundance of jobs. “In 2015, the legal marijuana industry in Colorado created more than 18,000 new full-time jobs and generated $2.4 billion in economic activity, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis of the economics of legal cannabis in the state.” (MPG) In the same fashion, these jobs increase the employment rate, GDP, and the well-being of citizens. On top of all that legalizing marijuana would decrease taxes. Marijuana being illegal makes for a lot of criminals because it is the most used illegal drug. Keeping people in jails and prisons isn’t free, and the funding for these establishments comes directly from citizen paid taxes. Another example is, “Since the start of the decade, our prisons have incarcerated nearly 12,000 federal prisoners and about 33,000 state prisoners for marijuana-related crimes.The average cost of each federal prisoner was about $29,000 in 2011 and every state prisoner cost taxpayers $31,286 as of 2010.” (CDC) So, not only do the people arrested for smoking a plant that makes them happy suffers from this law, but the average person does as well. In total, Legalizing marijuana would get people money and