Anonymous Author
Marijuana legalization has become more and more of a hot topic in recent years. States are beginning to decriminalize or even legalize it, with Ohio legislators even introducing a bill for legalization. But why hasn’t this happened yet? What is taking so long? Why are we still debating over whether marijuana should be legalized?
To start, it is impossible to talk about the issue of weed legalization without also addressing the systematic racism rooted in it. The War on Drugs has always targeted Black people more aggressively than white people, and the laws initially prohibiting marijuana were put in place in 1937 to specifically target Black people during the Jim Crow era. This is all fact. Even today, Black individuals are incarcerated for marijuana convictions at significantly higher levels (4 to 1) than white people, even though it was proven that white people use marijuana at a higher rate than Black people. This comes at the same time that white people are predominately making the biggest profits from marijuana legalization.
Compared to other legal drugs such as nicotine and alcohol, marijuana is exponentially safer than either. 480,000 Americans die every year as a direct result of cigarettes, as well as close to 100,000 from alcohol use. There has yet to be an adult death as a direct result of marijuana, with marijuana smoke offering zero correlation to cancer. Marijuana is also significantly less addictive than cigarettes and alcohol. But even though we know all of this, there are several direct societal impacts as a result of the criminalization of marijuana.
Here are the present-day stats: There are approximately 40,000 people in jail right now for nonviolent marijuana offenses. After imprisonment, it is significantly harder for them to find a job due to discrimination, contributing to further poverty in America and hurt families over offenses not affecting anyone. We are ruining families and people’s livelihoods over something with no negative impact. It costs $33,000 to incarcerate one person per year in America, costing millions of taxpayer dollars over the possession of a plant. We already have a shortage of workers in America, and part of that could be attributed to the fact that America incarcerates more people than any other country in the world—a huge portion as a result of nonviolent drug offenses. 40,000 additional workers sure would make an impact on the economy. In addition, it’s estimated that legalization across all 50 states could give $132 billion in tax revenue, as well as the creation of one million new jobs. To put that into perspective, it would cost approximately $20 billion to end homelessness. Hey conservatives, you could even put that $110 billion towards the military!
Full legalization would open a new world for the uses of hemp. Hemp is cannabis containing very little or no THC, and can be used for a multitude of products, including plastics, fuel, clothing, and even food. Hemp plastics are completely biodegradable, non-toxic, and are stronger and lighter than your run-of-the-mill polypropylene plastics. Hemp can be turned into fuel for a normal diesel engine, is efficient, and completely renewable.
To conclude, if you think that marijuana should still be criminalized, you’re a dummy.