5 Reasons We Need to Legalize Marijuana Right Now Even if You Don't Smoke Weed

The Top 5 Reasons to Legalize Marijuana Right Now Even if You Don’t Smoke Weed

5 reasons to legalize cannabis right now

George Floyd's death has opened America’s eyes to the systematic racial inequalities in America

Marijuana legalization is a hot topic right for a variety of reasons, infact cannabis stocks rallied these past few weeks on reports of cannabis being able to slow the coronavirus spread and the inclusion of the Safe Banking Act in the third round of COVID-19 pandemic funding for America. The concurrent belief that Federal cannabis legalization may be shifted forward during a post-pandemic recession to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and badly needed tax revenue is also part of the recent stock rally. Is the “perfect storm” forming to rush forward Federal marijuana legalization? While we at Cannabis.net have always pointed out that if you really want to see cannabis legalization, you have to root for a long and deep recession, if not depression. The reason? The worse it gets, the more desperate politicians will be to create jobs and tax revenue, if things get bad, they may have to throw Federal cannabis legalization against the wall and see if it sticks.

With George Floyd's tragic death this past weed, it has also pointed out a few other reasons that we need to legalize marijuana right now.

First, minorities have been arrested at a far greater rate for marijuana offenses over the past 50 years than hite citizens. The current trends have actually continued during legalization in over 30 states and Canada. Minorities are also given longer jail sentences when compared to similar white offenders in the cannabis space. As George Hill’s treatment showed racial inequalities in America, marijuana laws are run on the exact same premise that lead to Hill’s death. Marijuana arrests and prosecution is inherently racist, as the stats show over and over that minorities are arrested at a disproportional rate compared to Whites. Now, more minorities sit in jail now for a crime that is now legal in over 30 states. Many companies that legally sell marijuana now are run by White or Caucasian boards and C-Suites. One group legally profits from the sale of marijuana, while another group sits in jail for the exact same transaction.

Second, weed, cannabis, marijuana, the actual plant, has a relaxing and calming effect on the human body. As any police officer in America will tell you, they would much rather come up 10 cannabis users in a part compared to 10 alcohol users. Cannabis dissipates stress, anxiety, and tension while alcohol fuels aggression, anger, and rage. The actual use of the plant to “mellow everyone out” would help in neighborhoods and cities across America. Large scale cannabis-use growth in accordance with large scaled alcohol use reduction would be a win for the human body, and society, with all its current tensions and anxieties.

Third, economic recovery is a key. Money talks and states will need massive tax revenues to dig out of their COVID-19 spending. The Federal deficit is ballooning to historic proportion of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), and money has to come from somewhere to pay for all of this stimulus and pandemic assistance. We have covered the fact legalized weed would create close to a million jobs nationally and that tax revenue at the state and federal level would be created by a uniform Federal policy, but what is also important is that many of the lost jobs in the service industry may never come back. Bartender meet Budtender. The predominant marijuana industry job categories are the exact job demographics that the service industry categories, too. Budtenders, security, delivery drivers, check-out clerks, bud trimmers, marijuana grow workers, all fit into the socio-economic demographic of those people that lost service industry jobs. In this case, you are actually helping the people that are most effected by the layoffs and furloughs during the pandemic.

Fourth, the public wants legalization at an overwhelming polling pace, the numbers climb for Republicans and Democrat voters evey year, year after year. With 39 states or territories having some form of legalized marijuana already, weed is already “defacto” legal anyway. It really won’t be a big change in the daily life for 85% of America that already has access to cannabis, it will just be a way to clean up policy, create uniform taxes and interstate commerce rules, and create a Federal tax on legal sales. IRS codes need to be cleaned up, sales tax collections uniform, bank accounts and access to federal banking systems allowed, and most importantly investment dollars can flow into a burgeoning industry.

Fifth, we need to lessen the load on our legal systems and jails. We have learned during the pandemic that keeping non-violent offenders in crowed or over-crowded jails can be dangerous. If viruses are going to be a new norm and social distancing is here for the foreseeable future, crowing jails with non-violent cannabis offenders and growers is a waste of tax-payer money and creates dangerous health situation for all of society. Being caught selling a bag of weed or being caught growing plants should not be a death sentence in jail because of a virus or bacteria outbreak. Jails are overcrowded as it is, why send non-violent offenders who are not a threat to society to a jail. Their homes sit empty while they are in jail serving time, send them home for "home confinement" or house arrest,sentences, and less the financial burden and health risks to society.

It is time to get with the pro-pot movement, people, whether you toke up or not!