Why Nevada Should Follow Colorados Model for Marijuana Legalization - Research Paper Example

Greg Carter Joan Robinson English 102 21 November Why Nevada Should Follow Colorados Model for Marijuana Legalization The decision by Colorado voters to legalize marijuana fully should be followed to Nevada voters in a bid to legalize the full use of the herb for both medicinal and recreational purposes. While few states like Colorado and California have had full legalization of marijuana use for some time now, there has been increased wave of similar initiatives around the country especially in Nevada where the law has already been altered with a bid to reduce the penalties and legal implication of using marijuana or for possession. Decriminalization of marijuana and subsequent legalization of the use of the herb has been a topic under heated controversy in Nevada as more pro-marijuana groups organize the movement of advocate for legalized marijuana use for not only the medical use but also for recreational use for adults above twenty one years. The legalization of marijuana is advocated for due to the benefits that are enjoyed by states such as Colorado that have already legalized fully the use and possession of marijuana. Legalization of marijuana in Nevada will lead to a positive impact in the state socially, economically and medically. The major arguments supporting the legalization movement is based on the improvement of the medical application, reduction in crime, economic benefits, revenue on the government, and saving the budgetary costs of institutions such as correctional facilities, rehabilitation and the judiciary. Colorado and Washington were the pioneer states of legalizing marijuana and in 2016, Nevada is expected to follow suit as various complains are underway for the coming year of reforms. Full Legalization of marijuana will help Nevada to explore the many health and medicinal uses of marijuana. In Nevada, medical application of marijuana has been decriminalized although mostly regulated. Fully legalization of marijuana will lead to medical exploration of all the potential used of marijuana in the treatment of various diseases and health conditions. The successful use of marijuana and the rationale for is legalization is due to the fact that it is safe for human use especially where controlled for medical use. The herb has minimal toxicity thereby presenting no threat of lethal overdose. As such, the patient’s health is secured with no reported cases of end-organ failure or the need for routine laboratory monitoring. First, the herb has great therapeutic benefits. When applied in patients with certain psychiatric conditions, they enhance therapeutic effects on the patient by producing anti-inflammatory, neuro-protective, antiemetic, analgesic and antipastic actions on the patient. These actions brings a calming and relaxation effect on the patient. The drug is also effective in the treatment of pain. High potencies of smoked cannabis has the highest potential of relieving the highest intensity of pain and improvimg the ability of the patients to sleep (Franjo 2012). This is because it has active compounds that are sourced from smoked marijuana and are effective in increasing the potency of smoked cannabis in prevention of pain. This property has made it more reliable as an analgesic in the treatment of people with neuropathic pain associated with HIV (Ware, 2010). Marijuana has proven to be more effective and most tolerated compared to placebo which is mostly used to relieving pain. An active compound of marijuana known as Cannabinoids and its derivatives has also been proven through extensive investigation to treat cancer and tumors. Cannabinoids mimic the endocannabinoids, which are indigenous compounds used to trigger the activation of specific cannabinoid receptors that are responsible for inhibiting growth of tumors (Aggarwal, 2012). Legalization of marijuana in Nevada is expected to reduce the crime rate in the state considerable. This is following the positive reduction on crime in marijuana-legalized states such as Colorado and California. The effects of legalization of marijuana on crime rate run contrary to the common argument that marijuana increase the crime rate in the society (Gupta, 2013). The argument that legalization of marijuana fully for both medical and recreational purposes poses a threat to public health. This is because users of the drugs elicit criminal behavior such as property crimes and violence thereby exposing the public to potential violence and criminal acts. However, in practice, legalization of marijuana in various states has reported a considerable decrease in the rate of crimes especially assault and homicide. The laws legalizing fully the use of marijuana have been noted not to contain exacerbating effect on crime (Szalavitz, 2009). Marijuana has less harmful effects than alcoholic substances in terms of immediate and long lasting effects. Most of the people wishing to use marijuana find themselves substituting it with alcohol due to the huge penalties involved in illegally consumption of marijuana. While a person only needs a small amount of marijuana to have the stimulating effect released, alcohol requires a lot of it which can easily be addictive. Given the relationship between violent crime and alcohol consumption, full legalization of marijuana in Nevada will reduce the violence related to both marijuana and alcohol consumption as it is expected to reduce the rate of alcohol consumption as more and more alcohol users prefer to use marijuana instead. As a result, the overall rate of accidents and deaths will reduce. The mortality rate associated with overdose of opium has greatly reduced in states that has legalized marijuana and therefore it follows that Nevada will benefit from a reduction in the population that is abusing drugs thereby reducing the accidents rate as well as the rate of mortality (Mechoulam, 2012). Legalization of marijuana has increased economic benefits to the country and the state in which it has been legalized especially due to tax income. Legalization of marijuana will lead to increased revenue by the Nevada states government as a result of taxation (Conant et al, 2010). Since illegal businesses are not taxable, usage and possession of marijuana produces very little income for the state government of Nevada as it is only legalized partly for medical use only. Full legalization of the drug will ensure complete taxation of possession of the drug even for recreational purposes which will then lead to increased revenue for the government. To understand the total revenue which is potential from legalization of marijuana, it is prudent to understand the total consumption amount of marijuana annually for the U. S. residents. The estimated annual amount of revenue from consumption of marijuana in Nevada is $7.8 billion. (ONDCP, 2001). After effects of legalization on the demand and supply curve have to be taken into consideration. It is imperative to note that, with regards to total revenue through taxation, there will be a minimal effect due to the fact that potentially, some people have been deterred from using it due to penalties and are not considering using it again; also, there may be a slight increase in marijuana consumption for people who substitute tobacco, alcohol and other substances for marijuana and also from causal users. While this increase will be minimal, it is however offset by the revenue which has been reduced from consumption of marijuana substitutes. Taking the current tax rate for evaluating the revenue generated from taxation of marijuana, then the revenue will be $7.9 billion by 30% which is $1.47billion. The increase in revenue is very significant in the Nevada budget and therefore will go a long way into impacting the provision of services to the tax players. Furthermore, the legalization of marijuana is likely to increase employment of youths legally as opposed to under the black market. This will also increase the contribution of such individuals in the society as much as they were unable to do when their income was illegal (Grammy, 2014). The Nevada state government will benefit from saving on budgetary costs associated with possession and trafficking of prohibited marijuana. Legalization of marijuana will enable the Nevada government fight crime and therefore reduce the expenditure on issues related to crime. The amount to be saved by the Nevada government consists of expenditure on the police due to increased arrests and the judiciary and prosecution expenditure on marijuana related felonies. The amount that will be saved by the Nevada government were it to legalize marijuana will depend on the arrests made, the annual juridical cost of handling the arrest and the amount of resources spend on the incarceration of such offenders. The annual cost of arrest made as a result of marijuana violation in Nevada is estimated to be 10.32 billion from the average 550 arrests that are recorded. The arrested offender in this case are those arrested for marijuana violation, for suspicion of marijuana violation and arrests done during police routine search. Most of the arrests made form marijuana violation is associated with other crimes that led to the search. As such, the amount arising from legalization of marijuana should only be to the extent to which the marijuana arrest “stand-alone”. This are arrests made due to marijuana trafficking and possession. It is estimated that such arrest account for between 33% and 85%. As such, assuming that 50% of the resources used for marijuana arrests were used for other purposes, the police budget will save $5.16 billion. The government will also save on the resources used in the prosecution and the judicial process of marijuana offenders. The percentage used is limited to the fraction of felony convictions arising from marijuana association in Nevada courts. The fraction is estimated to be 2.7 % which is especially specified. The prosecution and judicial costs attributed to marijuana violation in Nevada are $ 27.03 billion from an annual average number of 248 cases. As such, 2.7 % of $27.03billionw will be available for Nevada states to use in other sections that requires public eservices (ONDCP, 2001). The Nevada state government and private institutions will save on their expenditure on maintaining, managing and sustaining such facilities as a result of increased case of marijuana abuse. Both the government and private institutions spend a lot of finances and other resources in order to contain the economic obligation of incarceration facilities, institutions and rehabilitation services. If Nevada legalized marijuana fully, there will be a considerable decrease in the expenditure on correctional facilities where marijuana offenders are incarcerated, institutions which are facilitated by tax payer’s money and well-wishers as well as money spent by individual s on rehabilitation centers in order to treat loved ones from addiction. As noted in this paper, the rate of offending and abusing the drug will reduce considerably when it is legalized. All the states that have passed the legalization of marijuana have reported a significant decrease in the abuse of the drug by adolescents who make a large percentage of irresponsible usage of the drug under prohibition. While the drug is prohibited and sold under the black market, even very young children can have access to it thereby increasing the adolescence offender (Williams, 2014). This will then increase the costs required by their families and he government in the correctional facilities and in the rehabilitation center in order to wean them off the drug. With marijuana legalization, the amount of the drug used for recreational purposes will significantly reduce thereby reducing the need for arrests as a result of marijuana violation. Furthermore, legalization of marijuana sets an age limit to 21 years failure to which the offender will be liable to a penalty. This will be effective as sellers of the drug will not be willing to sell to minor, just like the case of alcohol. As such, there will be less youths getting involved with the drug (Staff. 2014). Nevada will benefit greatly if it were to legalize marijuana in 2016. Notable benefits will be social and economic as it will lead to reduction in crime, increased revenue on the government, and saving the budgetary costs of institutions such as correctional facilities, rehabilitation and the judiciary. The state will also benefit from increase job opportunities as cultivation, possession and distribution of marijuana will not be prohibited. As at now, the possession or distribution of marijuana in Nevada attracts potential jail time, rehab or fines. Work Cited Aggarwal, Sunil K., "Cannabinergic Pain Medicine: A Concise Clinical Primer and Survey of Randomized-controlled Trial Results," Clinical Journal of Pain. Philadelphia, PA: February 23, 2012, p. 2. Conant, Eve, Maloney, Katie. "Pot And The GOP." Newsweek 156.18 (2010): 30. MAS Ultra – School Edition. Web. 21 November 2014. Grammy, Abbas. "Economic Benefits of Marijuana Legalization" Premier Thoughts: The CSUB Business Blog. Web. 20 November 2014. Gupta, Sanjay. "Why I Changed My Mind on Weed". 9 August 2013. CNN Health. Web. 21 November 2014. Franjo Grotenhermen, Dr. med., and Kirsten Müller-Vahl, Prof. Dr. med., "The Therapeutic Potential of Cannabis and Cannabinoids," Deutsch Arzteblatt International, 2012 July; 109(29-30): 495–501. doi: 10.3238/arztebl.2012.0495 Mark A. Ware, MD, MSc, et al., "Smoked Cannabis for Chronic Neuropathic Pain: A Randomized Controlled Trial," Canadian Medical Association Journal. 2010. Print. Mechoulam, Raphael. "Cannabis - A Valuable Drug That Deserves Better Treatment." Mayo Clinic Proceedings. February 2012. Web. 22 November 2014. Office of National Drug Control Policy. What America’s Users Spend on Illegal Drugs, Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates. 2001. Staff. "Marijuana Legalisation: High Time." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 11 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 November 2014. Szalavitz, Maia. "Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work?" Time. Time Inc., 26 Apr. 2009. Web. 21 November 2014. Williams, Jenny and Anne Line Brettville Jenson. "Does Liberalizing Cannabis Laws Increase Cannabis Use?" Journal of Health Economics 36 (2014): 20-32. Web. 16 November 2014. Read More