5 Reasons Why Recreational Marijuana Should Be Legal Everywhere
the truth: marijuana is no more dangerous, and in some cases less dangerous, than most of the other things we put into our bodies.
Despite this disparity, marijuana remains illegal in most states and its use is still taboo. It’s time to make a change toward legalizing this drug, and there are three big reasons why.
1. If alcohol and cigarettes are legal, marijuana should be too.
Legal consistency is important. I can buy huge amounts of vodka or menthol cigarettes nearly anywhere in the U.S., and we can attribute thousands of lost lives to those products, but I have to visit Washington or Colorado to legally purchase a joint, which is a far safer pleasure. The strength of regulation we apply to our actions has to be proportionate to their danger.
According to the CDC, alcohol overdose alone caused nearly 25,000 deaths in 2013 and contributed to nearly 16,000 deaths from liver disease. Alcohol-related crimes resulted in 2.2 million arrests in 2012. Cigarettes are just as bad, causing nearly 500,000 deaths in the United States per year with medical bills approaching $140 billion per year. Unhealthy foods are the worst of all, with latest statistics demonstrating that obesity is related to the deaths of nearly 20 percent of Americans per year, and that health care costs associated with being overweight are as much as $200 billion per year in the United States.
Try and regulate any of those and you’ll face serious backlash. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg saw a storm of criticism when he attempted to institute measures to curb the consumption of junk food.
2) Surprise! Legalizing weed doesn’t cause a crime epidemic
Despite the predictions of right-wing nutters, in Colorado, which legalized recreational use of marijuana,there has been no epidemic of crime.
Overall, crime has fallen by 15% and murder has dropped by 50%.
3) Weed can kill cancer cells
Marijuana can kill cancer cells, the US government has confirmed – and can also shrink some of the most serious types of brain tumours.
The research was carried out by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is funded by the federal government.
4) Dope is actually less addictive than drinking coffee
Coffee’s addictive effects mean that it might actually be a more harmful drug than weed, an expert has argued.
Matthew Lazenka, a researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University Health System argued this year in Science 2.0 that caffeine ticks off just as many boxes as for drug abuse as THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.
5) Legalizing weed would recharge the economy
If we legalized cannabis, up to £900m could be raised annually in taxes, according to the Institute for Economic Research.
States such as Colorado which have legalized cannabis have seen increased tax revenues.
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