Why Should Marijuana Be Legalized In Australia

Why marijuana should be legalized in Australia

Marijuana has been used by humans for thousands of years; the first mention of marijuana came from a Chinese medical reference that dated back to 2737 B.C. (Zimmermann, 2015). Since its introduction to the western world marijuana has come under much scrutiny. When introduced in the Americas marijuana was used and listed as a pharmaceutical drug, and it was not until the 1930s that it became a popular narcotic. Fearing that marijuana use would lead to a lost generation of American youth the federal bureau of narcotics created a campaign to scare away users of the drug. Many test of marijuana were conducted by the US government including one involving rats where huge amounts of marijuana were pumped

It was not until the 1990s that the benefits of medical marijuana were acknowledged by governments around the world. Since then countries such as Jamaica, Canada, and the Netherlands have either legalized marijuana use or have very lenient laws when it comes to the use of marijuana. Just recently a few states in the US have legalized marijuana and have prompted other countries to look into the benefits of legalizing the drug. Marijuana should be legalized in Australia because of the health benefits for people with mental and physical illness, the economic advantages of legalizing the drug, and the fact that crime rates would drop if the drug was legalized.

Marijuana should be legalized because of how many people it

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. This money can now be used to improve roads, build schools, and build hospitals. The legalization of marijuana clearly helped the economy in the state of Colorado but it also helped solve the problem of unemployment. The legalization of marijuana created 16,00 new jobs and as crime rates are down in the state the legal fees that were spent on crimes relating to marijuana felonies can be put to better use (Earleywine, 2013). The most used illegal drug in Australia is Marijuana by a huge margin, so if the Australian government legalized marijuana the economic benefits could be