Marijuana Legalization: Creating a Market Surplus
The dispute over the legalization of marijuana is one of the most controversial issues to take place in the United States. Although some states have voted to legalize, many others are still on the fence saying that Marijuana will has been used for thousands of years in many countries around the world, the United States use as a medicine has existed for thousands of years in many countries across the globe. This paper aims to demonstrate the projected market impact of legalizing marijuana.
If marijuana were legalized it would open up a whole new commerce in industrial hemp farming and the products that are made from it. Our economy in America is hurting right now. We need something to help boost it and bring our country out of debt. Taxation on legalized marijuana could help aid in this goal. Assuming the taxes are comparable to tobacco, a $40 billion marijuana market would yield about $16-20 billion in taxes (Nelson, 2010, para. 24). There are worries that the black market will undercut the legitimate sales of marijuana, which might be very true, the same thing has happened with tobacco. Having the security of knowing where the marijuana is coming from and that it was grown without harmful chemicals, altered by a third party, and knowing it is a quality product is a deterrent to black market purchases. The products that can be made from hemp number over 25,000 (Hemp Facts, 1997). A few of those products include paper, clothing, rope, fuel, and building materials. Hemp can be cultivated once or in some cases more than once per year, where timber has a twenty to thirty year rotation. We could create many products and have many uses from the hemp plant while helping de-forestation in the process. With the amount of products that could be created through the legalization of marijuana this could only create more jobs to fuel the production of these goods. In addition, private companies or the government...