Summary

Pro 1: Legalizing recreational marijuana results in helpful regulation of a safe drug, without increasing potential negative consequences.

People buying marijuana on the street have no way of knowing if what they’re ingesting is covered with mold, fungus, pesticides, or other harmful substances. Once marijuana is legalized, the government is able to enforce laboratory testing and regulations to ensure that marijuana is free of toxins. For example, Washington law requires health warnings, quality assurance, labeling for the concentration of THC, and other important regulations for consumers.[9] [10][11]

Further, legalization comes with regulations to prevent kids’ exposure to marijuana, including child-resistant packaging, such as the regulations implemented in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Legalization allows the government to set age restrictions on buyers and to license and regulate the entire supply chain of marijuana, including growers, distributors, retailers, and testing laboratories. California regulations include limitations on the serving sizes for edible marijuana products, seed-to-sale testing and tracking, and 24-hour video surveillance at retail stores. [12][13][14]

Due in part to these regulations, “the rates of marijuana use by young people are falling despite the fact more US states are legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana use and the number of adults using the drug has increased.” Marijuana use among 8th graders in Washington state decreased following legalization in 2012, from 9.8 percent to 7.3 percent in 2014/2016, according to a Dec. 2018 report from RAND. A study from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that past-year marijuana use decreased by 17%, from 15.8% in 2002 to 13.1% in 2014, among US kids ages 12 to 17. Colorado teens between 12 and 17 years old reported a nearly 12% drop in marijuana use just two years after adult use was legalized, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The Marijuana Policy Project, an organization that leads marijuana legalization campaigns, said, “Study after study has confirmed that marijuana policy reforms do not cause rates of youth marijuana use to increase…. The most in-depth state surveys suggest modest decreases in rates of youth marijuana use in Colorado and Washington.” [37][38][39][40][41][42][254]

Additionally, traffic deaths dropped 11% on average in states that legalized medical marijuana. In fact, studies show that drivers under the influence of marijuana tend to be more cautious and take fewer risks than drunk drivers, such as making fewer lane changes and reducing speed. A fact sheet about marijuana’s effects on drivers posted on the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration website stated that “Some drivers may actually be able to improve performance for brief periods by overcompensating for self-perceived impairment.” Benjamin Hansen, an economics professor at the University of Oregon at Eugene who studied traffic deaths post-medical marijuana legalization, concludes, “Public safety doesn’t decrease with increased access to marijuana, rather it improves.” [25][65][66][74]

The fact of the matter is that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco, which are already legal. Alcohol and tobacco are known to cause cancer, heart failure, liver damage, and more. According to the CDC, six people die from alcohol poisoning every day and 88,000 people die annually due to excessive alcohol use in the United States. There are no recorded cases of death from marijuana overdose.[46][47][168]

Three to four times as many Americans are dependent on alcohol as on marijuana. A study in the Lancet ranking the harmfulness of drugs put alcohol first as the most harmful, tobacco as sixth, and cannabis eighth. A national poll found that people view tobacco as a greater threat to health than marijuana by a margin of four to one (76% vs. 18%), and 72% of people surveyed believed that regular use of alcohol was more dangerous than marijuana use. “In several respects, even sugar poses more of a threat to our nation’s health than pot,” said Dr. David L. Nathan, a clinical psychiatrist and president of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation. [33][43][44][48]

Pro 2: Legalizing recreational marijuana would end the costly, and frequently racist, enforcement of marijuana laws and debilitate the illegal marijuana market.

Arresting people for marijuana possession costs the United States between $1.19 billion and $6.03 billion annually. These costs include police, judicial, legal, and corrections expenses. Incarcerating marijuana offenders costs the United States an estimated $600 million per year. Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron has estimated that marijuana legalization would save between $7.7 billion and $13.7 billion annually. [21][24][60][61][63]

Instead of arresting people for marijuana, police officers could focus on serious crimes including rape, assault, and homicide. For example, marijuana legalization in Washington significantly freed up law enforcement resources; marijuana possession arrests dropped from 5,531 the year before legalization to 120 the year after. Howard Wooldridge, a former police detective from Michigan who co-founded LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), said, “Marijuana prohibition is a horrible waste of good police time. Every hour spent looking for pot reduces public safety.”[62][64][169]

Further, statistics show a significant racial disparity in the enforcement of marijuana laws: even though white and black people use marijuana at roughly the same rate, a black person in the United States is 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession on average. In Iowa, the state with the highest inequity, black people are 8.3 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. In New York City, 15.8% of marijuana possession cases involving white people result in conviction, compared to 32.3% involving black people and 30% involving Hispanic people. Marijuana possession convictions can impact people’s ability to get public housing, financial aid for school, loans, and jobs. Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, Criminal Justice and Drug Policy director for the ACLU of California, stated, “Racial disparities in marijuana enforcement are widespread and longstanding.” Legalizing marijuana would help correct the disparity. [21][24][26][27][28]

Legalizing recreational marijuana would also subvert the illegal marijuana market. Data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that marijuana seizures have decreased by millions of pounds and are at their lowest levels in over a decade, indicating that legal domestic production is decreasing demand for marijuana smuggled in from Mexico. A Mexican cannabis farmer told NPR, “If the US continues to legalize pot, they’ll run us into the ground.” Legalization in Colorado and Washington alone has cost Mexican drug cartels an estimated $2.7 billion in profits. [17][18][19][21]

Finally, studies show that medical marijuana dispensaries decreased crime in their neighborhoods because of an increased security presence and more people walking around the area. Research also indicates that people drink less and alcohol sales drop in places where marijuana is legalized, which in turn decreases crime because the amount of crime and violence caused by alcohol use is ten times higher than by marijuana use and alcohol is a factor in around 40% of violent crimes, including domestic violence and assault. According to FBI crime statistics, violent crime in Washington decreased in the years after legalization (295.6 violent offenses reported per 100,000 Washington residents in 2011 vs. 284.4 violent offenses per 100,000 people in 2015). [30][31][32][33][35][36]

Taylor West, former deputy director for the National Cannabis Industry Association, said, “We’re not seeing any increase in crime rates through marijuana — we’re seeing lower crime rates, and there are good rational reasons for that: We’re really beginning to cripple the criminal market, which is where violence actually occurs.” [71]

Pro 3: Legalizing recreational marijuana boosts the economy by creating new tax revenue and jobs.

For every $1.00 spent in the marijuana industry, between $2.13 and $2.40 in economic activity is generated for other industries, including but not limited to: tourism, banking, real estate, construction, and transportation. While 2017 estimates suggested the marijuana industry (adult-use and medical) in the United States could exceed $24 billion in revenue by 2025, the industry hit $24.6 billion in revenue in 2021, exceeding the market for energy drinks, milk, and orange juice. [1][2][3][7][278]

In Colorado, marijuana brings in three times more tax revenue than alcohol. The state raised $78 million in the first fiscal year after starting retail sales, and $129 million the second fiscal year. Washington collected a total of $220 million in tax revenues in its second fiscal year of sales. [15][52][53]

The legal marijuana industry generated $7.2 billion in economic activity in 2016, and added millions of dollars in federal taxes paid by cannabis businesses. A study on adult-use marijuana in Nevada projected $7.5 billion in economic activity over the first seven years of legalization in that state, including $1.7 billion in labor income. A study by the University of California Agricultural Issues Center estimated that the legal marijuana market in California could generate $5 billion annually. [4][5][6][20]

In addition to creating tax revenue, legalizing marijuana creates jobs. As of Jan. 2022, the legal marijuana industry had created 428,059 American jobs, with 107,000 new jobs in 2021 alone, according to the Leafly Jobs Report. The report noted that jobs increased 33% from 2020 to 2021, or approximately 280 new jobs per day. 2021 was the fifth consecutive years jobs increased by more than 27%. [278]

An economic impact estimate from the Marijuana Policy Group forecast the creation of more than 130,000 jobs in California following legalization. Within a few years of legalization, approximately 18,000 additional full-time jobs were created in Colorado annually, both in the actual marijuana business as well as in related fields such as security and real estate. U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) stated that the cannabis industry in the United States “is expected to produce nearly 300,000 jobs by 2020 and grow to $24 billion by 2025.” [15][20][59]

Further, all of the tax revenue in legal marijuana states provide funding to the police, drug treatment and mental health centers, and housing programs, along with school programs such as anti-bullying campaigns, youth mentoring, and public school grants. “The impact is really felt at the local level. Some counties have done 20 years of infrastructure work in just one year’s time. They’ve provided lunch for kids who need it,” says Brian Vicente, partner at Vicente Sederberg LLC, a law firm specializing in the marijuana industry.[40][50][73]

In Colorado, $40 million of marijuana tax revenue went to public school construction, while $105 million went to housing programs, mental health programs in jails, and health programs in middle schools in 2016-2017. [51][52]

Pro 4: Most Americans agree recreational marijuana should be legal.

A 2022 Gallup poll found 59% support for legalizing marijuana among American adults, up from 12% in 1969, the first year the polling company asked about marijuana. The poll first surpassed 50% support in 2011. [249][276]

According to Gallup, “the transformation in public attitudes about marijuana over the past half-century has mirrored the liberalization of public attitudes about gay rights and the same-sex-marriage movement.” While Democrats (73%) have been more likely to back legalization historically, 45% of Republicans overall agree with legalization. However, 62% of younger Republicans (18 to 29) support legalization for recreational use. [67][276]

NORML, which lobbies for marijuana legalization, states, “Most Americans agree with NORML that responsible marijuana consumers should not be treated like criminals. Eight in ten Americans support the medical use of marijuana, and two-thirds of adults favor legalizing marijuana for adults.” As evidence, 40 states took some action to relax their drug laws (such as decriminalizing or lowering penalties for possession) between 2009 and 2013. And, as of Jan. 31, 2023, DC and 21 states had legalized recreational marijuana, while DC and 37 states had legalized medical marijuana. [69][70][277]