(Newswire.net — May 12, 2017) — The law of the land is often considered to be something laid down to help humanity flourish, to keep us on the right track and to make sure those who do something immoral are punished. As far as I am concerned, law is just a series of loop holes and contradictions, a system designed to appease and oppress the public while keeping the government coffers full.
Nowhere is this more evident than with drug laws. I currently live in a country where I can be fined for taking a drug, purely because it may have negative effect on my health, just as I can be fined for not wearing a seatbelt, even though I’m the only one that would affect. How does that make sense? “We know it only hurts you, but your health and wellbeing is important to us. Now, take this criminal record, give us £500, and if you do it again we’re taking away your freedom.”
Don’t get me wrong, I do not think that hardcore drugs should be legal, and I understand that any drug can fuel organized crime, but only because it’s on the black market in the first place. If it’s not, then the only criminal empire it’s funding is the government and while that’s probably just as bad for us, you’d think it would be something they could get behind.
This is an argument that has been tossed back and forth for decades, but because many American states have now legalized medical marijuana, we have some studies and stats to back up these claims, including:
Crime
If you’re a Colorado criminal lawyer; then we have some bad news for you. If you’re anyone else, we have some good news: after the first year of legalization in Colorado, violent crime fell by more than 5%, while crime on the whole fell by 10%.
Tax
When the money isn’t in the hands of criminals, it is in the hands of the government, and that’s what happened in Colorado. The state earned over $10 million in taxes during the first 4 months of legalization, and there was exponential growth from there. Add that to the entire United States and you have tax income in the billions.
More Jobs
This is a huge industry and like all big industries it requires a lot of manpower. Tens of thousands of employees are being brought into this industry for each state that has legalized it. If it spreads across the country then it could great over 1 million new jobs on the whole, a number that is not to be sniffed at.
Research
There are many more benefits to the legalization of cannabis. These include the fact that it has allowed for a greater depth of research to be done, which in turn has made Colorado the home of research on this drug. More research means that we will soon know once and for all whether this drug really can help with all of the ailments it is being prescribed to assist with.