As of January 1st 2014, recreational marijuana became legally available to sell. Only five days into the new year and pot shops are already falling behind. With such high demand these shops are finding it impossible to keep up.
It appears that it is a huge success. Pot is being sold for double the price it was before legalization plus a 20% tax. Even with such high prices, the shops are still selling out. In Colorado, two pot shops that opened in the same town made collectively over $87,000 the first day of legalization. Only 37 stores across colorado opened and many thought that the few number of stores would halt the sales of marijuana, but so far that has been quite the opposite.
While the effects seem to be great from an economic stand point, many people think it will lead to similar problems of alcohol and tobacco: causing addictions in adults and children. Now that marijuana is legal, the access to it will be extremely easy. I think it will lead to same problems that we have with alcohol. Driving under the influence, addiction, public intoxication.
To me it seems that the cons of legal pot outweigh the pros and I wonder what everyone else thinks. Colorado is the only state with legal marijuana, but I wonder if other states will join and maybe create a domino effect.
I strongly disagree with your stance that the cons of legal marijuana outweigh the pros, and I think the evidence you use in your blog post to defend this is minimal. You bring up several widely used points (driving under the influence, addiction, etc.) that can be easily refuted. For example, there is little evidence to suggest legal amounts of marijuana use heavily impairs driving abilities and in fact, in a study done by Norml (an anti-legalization organization) they defended this conclusion. (See the study here: http://norml.org/library/item/marijuana-and-driving-a-review-of-the-scientific-evidence)
ReplyDeleteAlso, you neglected to mention the effects of marijuana legalization on racial profiling. As you know from our unit in class, the police often use the draconian US drug laws as a means through which to profile minorities, and legalization hits this type of racism heavily.
Thanks for commenting presto, and I see the points you make here and I'm sorry that I forgot to mention how marijuana legalization effects racial profiling. And I agree that it would help significantly with the problem of racial profiling and racism in the law against lower class african americans. But I still stand by my original opinion that marijuana shouldn't be legalized.
ReplyDeleteYou say "there is little evidence to suggest legal amounts of marijuana use heavily impairs driving abilities." The law in Colorado right now is that you can't buy more than an ounce of marijuana a day or have more than an ounce on you while in public. Experienced users all over the internet say that an ounce of marijuana is way more than enough to get you high. As seen here (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110917140105AAlr6Wi). An ounce of weed can get you high enough where it is is dangerous and a concern for yourself and others. Many Marijuana users say marijuana is not addictive at all. And According to Roger Roffman, a professor at the School of Social Work and Science at the University of Washington, these people are very wrong. According to studies done by Roffman and the National Institute for Drug Abuse, estimates suggest one in nine users will become addicted. For people who started using as teenagers, the estimates show one in six users will become addicted. Roffman also explains that early use of marijuana directly effects brain development of children under 18.
As for driving under the influence, marijuana isn't as bad as alcohol, but marijuana and cars still don't mix. Getting behind the wheel while high on marijuana is bad because it effects your motor performance, perception, and concentration. (http://www.healthline.com/health-news/policy-experts-debate-marijuana-legalization-010613)
Another point I may make is that Marijuana has been called a gateway drug, or a drug that leads to harder and much more serious drugs. This in turn leads to more drug abuse, and more illegal drug sales.
I believe that marijuana could be legal in a utopian society that wouldn't abuse it or the drugs, but I can't see that being able to work in real life. Alcohol and tobacco are abused by thousands of people and I believe marijuana will become the next legal drug to be abused.