More States to Sell Pot

January 11, 2014

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/09/us/alaska-recreational-marijuana-push/

Unit 5

This article reports on the fact that Alaska has been able to get a bill for legalizing marijuana on the next ballot which will take place in August. Colorado seems to have been a springboard for others to legalize recreational marijuana in many other states, including California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Arizona. They only required 30,000 signatures to get this proposal on the ballot, and they got 45,000 signatures in support of this. If it passes, they will have a similar set-up to Colorado, and they will be the third state to legalize marijuana.

I think that for the most part, states are making a step in the right direction with this move. Legalizing recreational marijuana, and putting taxes on it, will add new jobs, and increase tax revenues. There will also be a control of how much people use, because in states where it is legal, there is only so much you can buy at a time, depending on whether or not you are a citizen of that state. It also restricts the age limit, like it does with alcohol, and the legislation that legalizes recreational marijuana make it clear that marijuana sold in one state is not to be taken to other states.

I think that legalizing marijuana is a good idea. It will bring it out of the shadows, and the black market will have one less thing that it can persuade people to buy, illegally. It will provide more revenue in sales tax, because just like cigarettes and alcohol, it will have a higher sales tax than regular everyday purchases, like food. I am in favor of this, and I think that in the long run it will actually decrease the number of deaths and overdoses by limiting the amount that people have access to.