During the first year of legal recreational marijuana in Colorado the state profited over three million dollars from recreational marijuana alone. Profit margins like three million dollars in Colorado could sky rocket when more states begin to legalize marijuana, the percent of tax on the product depends highly on the state and its government officials (Huddleston, 2016). In California today marijuana has not been legalized for recreational consumption by the citizens of the state. If you are a resident of California and you wanted recreational marijuana legally you would have to drive to the closest legal state, Washington. When traveling to or through legal states you are allowed to consume a limited amount of marijuana but only in the privacy of a home. This makes it very difficult for people traveling to be able to enjoy and consume legal marijuana. Financial insurance and a changing social dynamic is leading to one major result, that is the legalization of marijuana for recreational use in California. 

  In 2014 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, NSDUH, took a survey and concluded that in the last month over twenty-two million people admitted to consuming marijuana either legally or illegally (NSDUH, 2015). In the past, marijuana was made out to be a killer drug that would only inflict harm to your body. As time moves on in the United States there has been an increasing large number of middle and high schoolers trying marijuana or continually using the illicit drug. Monitoring the Future, a drug youth drug survey group, took a survey in 2015 concluding that eleven percent of eighth-graders had used marijuana, and almost seven percent said they were current users of marijuana in legal and illegal states. In legal states the age to consume is twenty-one meaning that in no situation would it be legal for middle through high schoolers to consume marijuana (NSDUH, 2015). As teens begin to mature and experiment in high school drugs become progressively more available. This new found availability of drugs is a rush for some new drug seeking teens. The national survey of high schoolers using marijuana states that thirty-five percent of students have used marijuana and around twenty percent are current users (NSDUH, 2015). Percentages like the ones previously stated alarm most adults and make them think that these people are getting addicted to marijuana. Marijuana dependency has become a huge epidemic with the using community. Users who smoke weekly will feel as though they are having withdraws if forced to stop their usage. The withdraws that are reported include insomnia, craving, restlessness, and a decreased appetite. The withdraws from marijuana usage can last up to two weeks after stopping use of the drug due the brain adapting to the amount of drug and has been producing less endocannabinoid neurotransmitters, causing the body to have to adapt back to before the drug use (Liccardo, 2010).

 A factor to the rising rates of marijuana dependency is the major shift in potency over the years in marijuana strains. In the 1990's average THC content of marijuana buds was around four percent. In 2013 marijuana potency had rose over one hundred percent, raising the rates to around ten percent THC which is what gives the user the euphoric "high" experience (Barthwell, 2005). As of modern day the United States and many other countries have more concentrated forms of THC rather than marijuana buds they are smoking a concentrate. These concentrates can have marijuana potency of up to eighty percent rather than a measly ten percent in marijuana buds. This means to equal the effects of smoking concentrated forms of THC a user would have to indulge into a lot of marijuana which in turn will cause major health issues. Some of the health issues associated with smoking of marijuana is the sever irreversible damage done to the human lungs. Users make a conscious decision to inflict bodily harm unto themselves when indulging in the drug marijuana. 

Even though the general stereotype of a marijuana user is a degenerate teenager, not many think of the people who have been successful and gotten rich from marijuana or are planning on it when the opportunity presents itself. Ex Facebook owner, Sean Parker, and current Napster co founder is avid in his fight to bring recreational marijuana to the state of California. Sean Parker published an article in the Los Angeles Times about his involvement in the business of legalization of recreational marijuana in California. The act that Sean has helped establish is the "Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act". The title of the act is self explanatory, Parker is looking to help control and regulate the sale of recreational marijuana in the state of California. Sean Parker is a large stake holder in the fight to legalize recreational marijuana in California because of the money and time that he has invested into the marijuana industry (Adams, 2015). The stake holders in the battle to legalize recreational marijuana in California are people who have invested their hard earned money into an up and coming industry. Stake holders in the argument to legalize marijuana include tax paying citizens and government officials, not all stake holders have millions of dollars invested in the marijuana industry or are even educated on the topic of legalization yet. Some examples of stake holders would be wealthy business owners Joby Pritzker and Nick who together own Hyatt hotels and also Justin Hartfield who invented the WeedMaps app (Adams, 2015). These men are stake holders because they have invested millions of their dollars already into into Parkers campaign money. It was reported in San Francisco Weekly News that the campaign has been collecting money for around three years, the predicted final budget is estimated to be upwards of fifteen million dollars for legal marijuana. Stake holders must be cautious with their money when endeavoring into a business of legal marijuana that is outlawed by the federal government.

Today there are four states that have legalized recreational marijuana including Alaska, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. This means that marijuana is safe to be grown and consumed in the privacy of your home as long as they are abiding by the government sanctions on marijuana.  As states move towards legal marijuana scientists have predicted that consumption rates will explode due to opportunity presenting itself and because of a feeling of oppression that American citizens have felt in our "Land of the free". Marijuana is seen as the "forbidden fruit" in none legal states, meaning that like the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, marijuana is a source of temptation that is believed to produce evil by some. There is no set view on marijuana in the world because of the legalization in some places but not others. One country that would be a good comparison to the United states on marijuana laws would have to be our neighbor to the north, Canada. Through out Canada marijuana has been slowly been decriminalized and legalized. Canada's slack law enforcement on the drug has made the country one of the major suppliers of illegal marijuana trafficking into the United States. Another major factor in the legalization of marijuana in California is Mexico, drug trafficking cartels distribute marijuana and money over the US/Mexico border (Kilmer, 2010). With the legalization of marijuana in California the drug trade from Mexico and other foreign countries is predicted to dry up; Meaning that the introduction of legal marijuana will become more prevalent than the illegal marijuana that is being smuggled over United States Borders and Customs. With the drug trade over national borders decreasing so will the crime and blood shed associated with the illegal distribution of marijuana. For some this legalization of marijuana will put them and their families out on the streets looking for work or begging for money, these people who are distributing the illegal marijuana over borders should not have a say in the vote on marijuana because they have an obvious unfair bias on the topic. 

With the legalization of marijuana in California will come budget cuts to the Drug Detection and Confiscation departments, leading to money being put into other government funded programs. Scientists are unclear how much money legal marijuana will make in taxes but know the number will be big. Some of these marijuana tax money funded programs include ten million per year to study of the effects of marijuana, three million to solve the problem of driving while under the influence of marijuana. There are many smaller programs that are city run that will get funded by the drug money, like drug education programs and treatment and rehabilitation facilities. The rest of the money will be dumped into the California education system (Kilmer, 2010). 

The legalization of marijuana will do a lot of good for the state of California but can potentially harm citizens. A major discussion topic today is on mothers' rights over their children/fetus. In America there is a large backing for the campaign on eliminating abortion completely. Abortion is the complete eradication of a fetus within its mother's womb. The next potentially life threating situation for a fetus is if the mother is indulging in drugs such as marijuana. After experimenting on pregnant rats' scientists concluded that even small doses of THC while carrying fetus has lasting effects on the child. These lasting effects found on the rat babies were also typical side effects of a heavy marijuana user such as gaps in memory/short term, below average problem-solving skills, and an inability to pay attention for an extended period of time (Volkdo, 2016). Even after child birth a mother can still effect her child by indulging in marijuana, researchers have found signs of THC being excreted through breast milk into young children. THC effects through breast milk would target the developing brain of the adolescent but would be no where near the effects of drug abuse during pregnancy. Due to concerns there may be laws coming up determining that mothers must get tested throughout the nine-month duration of a homosapien pregnancy. Even though these laws will be used to do good for the community there will still be people throughout the state of California that think the government is impeding on their right to freedom. 

The United States president that publicly promoted anti drug agencies was Richard Nixon. Nixon was elected in the late sixty's and concluded his presidency on August ninth 1974. When the public question came up on the decriminalization of marijuana in the United States Nixon took little time to shut it down and deaminized marijuana plants to the public. Nixon replied with, "We need an all out war, or all fronts" when pressed on the topic of decriminalizing marijuana (Zeese, 2006). Interpreted Nixon basically says that we need an all out war on drugs at home and abroad. Marijuana related arrests increased over 100,000 people in the first year after Nixon made his statement go public. Most of Nixon's ideals were debunked after his presidency, tapes were found by the CSDP (Common Sense for Drug Policy) agency. In these tapes there are voice recordings of Nixon talking about how the Jews raised the question on legal marijuana; blaming an entire religion/culture for something like bringing around the questions on marijuana makes Nixon look extremely prejudice and uncreditable (Zeese, 2006). President Barrack Obama, United States current president, is the first president to have marijuana be legal in some states. It is the states decision on whether they think marijuana legalization would be appropriate and profitable for their citizens and businesses. 

In Colorado where marijuana is legal, sales have been steadily increasing by around fifty percent each year. The first year of legal marijuana profits for the state brought in a whopping three million dollars in profit. Since the state of Colorado is a fraction of the massive state of California's population, researchers are unable to properly estimate a value for the first year of marijuana sales in California (Pacula, 2010). Colorado does have several laws on the marijuana plant and restrictions on how much a person may be in possession of. A citizen in the state of Colorado is allowed to be in possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for personal use, this is the same as restrictions in a vehicle or transferring marijuana. Lastly a citizen of the state of Colorado can be in possession of up to six marijuana plants. There is an increased severity in the punishment for possession of marijuana to the cultivation of the plants. Being in possession of more than seven ounces is considered a misdemeanor while more than twelve ounces is a federal offence. Punishment for breaking laws on sale and cultivation of marijuana is a federal offence as soon as you transfer over one ounce in a vehicle on an interstate or have more than the six sanctioned marijuana plants (Pacula, 2010). When legal marijuana finally comes to the state of California, government officials will place sanctions and penalties for being in possession of too much marijuana in the wrong place. The profits made from the sales of recreational marijuana in California will by far outweigh the cost of regulating and enforcing laws on marijuana. The current California laws show that a citizen in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana are let go with a misdemeanor and up to a five-hundred-dollar ticket. California has zero tolerance policy facing sales and distribution, and cultivation and marijuana plants. The laws on concentrated forms of marijuana are a lot less tolerant than possession laws. Making or possessing any form of concentrated marijuana is punishable with up to seven years and fifty thousand dollars in fines. 

Todays common laws on marijuana in California are costing the state upwards of one billion dollars to enforce, prosecute, and incarcerate citizens in possession of the just marijuana. The one billion dollars spent on enforcing, prosecuting, and incarcerating is coming directly out of state tax payers' wallets. The fact that citizens hard earned money is what is used to enforce current laws on marijuana makes this argument incredibly significant to tax paying citizens of California. The one billion dollars a year in California does not include the amount of money spent enforcing other illegal drug activity, such as, crack cocaine or the deadly combination of meth amphetamine and heroin. Currently all the money from the marijuana trade in California is going to cartels and criminals rather than being distributed back into the local economy to help promote trade and expansion of legitimate corporations. Technically all tax paying citizens of California are stake holders in the legalization of marijuana because your taxes are used to help pay anti drug enforcement efforts. Rather than California putting money into keeping the no tolerance policy that money should be used in the enhancement of the states education system and rehabilitation programs for those seeking help. The clear next move with this changing in social dynamic and a need for more money circulating through the economy leads to the logical step of legalizing the marijuana plant in California. 

