
A growing topic in the United States, is what role marijuana should play in todays society. While it might not be involved in the everyday lives of most people today, it could very well be looked to, to jumpstart the economy. One of the positives that would come from legalization would be the hundreds of millions if not more that could potentially be made from taxing the drug. Also states where marijuana is already legal, like Colorado, where marijuana is recreationally legal there has been decrease in crimes and creation of new jobs. Legalizing marijuana would help the economy in several ways, with the new industry there will be many new jobs, which will decrease the unemployment and leave people with more money. Also with the high taxes on marijuana this will create more tax revenue for states and decrease the taxes on the citizens, resulting in the people having more money in their pocket to spend. With this extra money circulating and a new marijuana industry being open, people will buy more marijuana, which will put their money back into the system and help both the government and themselves. For those unsure if marijuana would be such a booming industry, many other countries such as Canada, and England have also done research that show how much of an impact it would have, also the success of the plant can be seen in marijuana legal countries like Uruguay, and Netherlands. By looking at the success and benefits of the marijuana industry in the states where it is already recreationally and medically legal, we can see that legalizing marijuana to some extent in all/most states will create a huge increase in revenue for this recently flowering industry; this is important, because the future increase in popularity in this industry will be able to decrease expenses spent restraining the illegal market, decrease taxes for the American citizens, and create jobs for the country. 

While legalizing the use and sale of marijuana will produce plenty of profits, just making marijuana use alone legal will save the government plenty of money. In the United States out all the drug arrests made each year almost half of them (49.5%) are marijuana related (Papastrat). Because of this someone is arrested for a marijuana related crime every forty-one seconds, which come out to about 750,000 people a year (Adams). And for all those people that were arrested there is billions of dollars' worth of resources of man power and time spent to put these offenders away. The government spends around nine billion dollars each year on the enforcement of marijuana laws (Adams). That much money alone would allow the government and law enforcement to save money and focus their resources on more important and dangerous criminals. This was seen somewhat last year when "Congress also cut the DEA's [Drug Enforcement Administration] budget by $23 million" (Marijuana in the US: Business Booming, Attitudes Changing). Also statistics from the marijuana legal state of Colorado show that the crime rates have fallen "Violent crime in Denver went down by 2.2% in the first 11 months of 2014, compared with the first 11 months of 2013" (Decriminalization and Legalization). However, besides that nine billion dollars there is also the billions of dollars that are spent to incarcerate marijuana offenders and on top of that there is the money the government spends on marijuana prevention through programs like D.A.R.E. (Decriminalization and Legalization). By legalizing marijuana, the government can save around twenty-five billion dollars per year, with law enforcement spending directly around 9 billion dollars on the enforcement of keeping the drug legal and then around fifteen billion for the incarceration of the criminals (Papastrat). This will also benefit tax payers since a portion of their tax money goes towards law enforcement, government programs and the prison system.

So far the legalization of marijuana in certain states has been an overall success, in all aspects including the economy, showing the success it could one day have nationwide. With most of the states being medical marijuana states (23) which are less profitable and taxed less compared to the few recreational states (4 and the District of Columbia) which will have much bigger markets, the few recreational states compared to the many medically states show how much room the United States has to grow in this industry (Marijuana in the US: Business Booming, Attitudes Changing). However, even with this limited supply of states the marijuana industry was still able to be a multi-billion dollars one (Hauser). With all this money, a lot of workers are needed, so hundreds of thousands of people have jobs now in the marijuana industry across the United States and as the industry is growing hundreds of thousands more are predicted. For this trend in the marijuana industry to continue, it will have to be done through the government and upcoming elections, by voting for officials that will make these changes happen and voting for referendums that will legalize the drug in that area. With the upcoming election nearly a dozen states will debate the marijuana laws in their area. This year should be the tipping point for the United States and marijuana prohibition with the majority of states making a transition from illegal criminalization for sale or possession to some sort of legal marijuana laws and a regulated market from state to state (Marijuana in the US: Business Booming, Attitudes Changing). "Key states, including California, Nevada and Massachusetts, are expected to legalize adult use, while Florida is expected to pass a medical cannabis bill similar to the one that narrowly failed in 2014 (Marijuana in the US: Business Booming, Attitudes Changing)." In the upcoming year the majority of states in the country should have some form of legalization for recreational, or medical marijuana laws.

With an increase in states legalizing marijuana, the government will set regulations for all areas of marijuana sale. The marijuana industry, though it is different than both alcohol and tobacco, the industries follow similar suits, in marketing, advertising, and most aspects, so it safe to assume that the marijuana industry will follow in their footsteps by having similar restriction on the products. An example of there similarity is the sales tax that is put on these items by each of the states, which goes towards other government programs like education, and law enforcement. Assuming that marijuana has a similar sales tax to alcohol and/or tobacco, legalizing marijuana across the country could bring in anywhere from six billion to ten billion dollars (Topic: Alcoholic Beverages Industry). Last year the tax revenue from marijuana sales was around three-hundred million, with 135 million coming from Colorado alone (Marijuana in the US: Business Booming, Attitudes Changing). However most of the tax revenue came from fully legal states since the tax revenue on just medical marijuana is significantly lower (Hesson). Unlike most states with alcohol and tobacco the tax on marijuana in the states where it is fully legal is a higher tax percentage, ranging from twenty-five percent in Washington to thirty-seven percent in Alaska to around ten percent tax in Colorado (Hauser). A larger tax on the product will lead to even larger amounts of tax revenue if weed is fully legalized.

Also like the big alcohol and the tobacco industries compare to the potential the marijuana industry has for growth. With the limited markets right now in the United States, the marijuana industry was still able to produce five billion dollars in sales in 2015 (Marijuana in the US: Business Booming, Attitudes Changing). This is compared to the over two-hundred billion in alcohol sales there were last year and almost half a trillion in sales the tobacco industry had, which are both fully legal in the United States (Cole) (Topic: Alcoholic Beverages Industry). Along with this increase in sales comes the need for more product and with that the need for more employees. The job are more than people just selling the drug in the dispensary, they are people working with medical marijuana, in farms cultivating and growing the crop, in testing facilities, in the infusion and packaging businesses, in retail stores and in the transportation of the product. And that's not including the marijuana products and accessories that are not directly associated with the drug such as glass products. An example of how all this translates to the real world is shown in Colorado which "has the fastest growing economy in the United States, and Colorado's unemployment rate is at a six-year low" (Decriminalization and Legalization). So far Colorado has produced 16,000 licensed workers in the marijuana industry, which does not include the jobs not directly associated (Decriminalization and Legalization). Its' hard for experts to accurately predict how many new jobs will form in the marijuana industry in upcoming years because of the issue of legality in most states. However, it is predicted once weed becomes legal in California this upcoming year it could produces 200,000 thousand jobs that year and around one million after 8 years (Karol). That's enough jobs to produces an immense shift in unemployment throughout the entire country.

Marijuana has had an interesting story throughout history, however in todays day and age the use of it is more mainstream than ever. In Colorado celebrities such as Snoop Dog, Willie Nelson and Tommy Chong, have tried to bring the pot industry to the forefronts, by creating their own distinct brands (Hauser). However, because of the drug more mainstream and be used by more people and more often and and the legalization of marijuana in places like Colorado, the result has not been all beneficial. Though the economy has been thriving in the state, there has been a new set of issues that has come with legal weed. Some of the issues only exist because there are limited legal states, such as there being a two-thousand percent increase in mail intended for other states that was intercepted (Johnson). Another issue from legalization is the increase of marijuana related incidents in schools. There was a forty percent increase in expulsions, however not all of them were marijuana related (Johnson). Also there was an increase in marijuana related fatalities even though traffic deaths as a whole decreased (Johnson). Another issue with the legalization of marijuana is the health worries people have with the increase in smoking and the limited research on the drug. However, over the last few years there has been more medical research done on the drug providing more uses for the drug medically, such as showing how it can replace some of the most common prescription pills like Vicodin, Xanax, Adderall, Ambien, and Antidepressants (Welsh and Loria). Like many other things in life, everything in moderation and too much can have negatives effects, such as affecting brain development in teens, create breathing problems, causing mental illness with long term users (Welsh and Loria). To help further the education of people about the drug, Colorado put some of the tax money towards the education and prevention programs for the communities and schools. Specifically, "$8 million in retail marijuana tax revenue for youth prevention and education, mental health and community based developmental programs" (Decriminalization and Legalization). Along with 2.5 million dollars for health workers, and 2 million towards "community-based youth services programs that offer mentoring and focus on drug prevention and school retention, and over $4.3 million will fund school-based outreach programs for students using marijuana" (Decriminalization and Legalization). This shows how Colorado is using the resources from the drug, to further educate people about the drug instead of trying to scare people into not using it. As you can see there have been some set backs from legalizing the drug however it could also be that the drug is becoming more mainstream and synonymous to everyday life for some people. However, it is still early on in a marijuana legal America, so many of these issues will improve after the years go on.

So far legalizing marijuana has been an overall success in the states where it is legalized helping the people who need the drug to get the treatment they need and allowing the people who use it recreationally to use it as they please, because of this success, marijuana is the key to the next big industry. In the states where it is already legal the benefits can already be seen by decreasing costs for the government and law enforcement, decreasing taxes in these areas and creating new jobs. Already in the limited states where it is legal marijuana sales are already in the billions, with almost a billion in sales in Colorado alone, giving it the fastest growing economy in the country (Decriminalization and Legalization). Besides these benefits to legalizing the drug, there has been few negatives so far in the recreationally legal states like Colorado. Overall there are many benefits to the economy and in essence helping the people, to legalizing marijuana.

