Negative Effects Of Marijuana Legalization

IV. Negative and Positive effects of Marijuana Legalization
Among the issues faced when legalizing marijuana certain positive and negatives perspectives should be taken under consideration. When talking about the negative effects of marijuana legalization, we can have the issue of how dispensaries that sell the weed know the accurate percent of THC and CBD in each strain. This represents a worry for the government and represents an unsafe option towards consuming marijuana. Because users of marijuana can have different intended uses which can be recreational or medical purposes, and the a difference in the percent of THC and CBD can provoke many reactions, it is a must to provide the customer with the accurate percent of THC and CBD on each
First, if marijuana is legalized the war on drugs will have a total different focus because it will not consist on focusing on marijuana rather than focus on drugs like cocaine and heroin. Around fourty four percent of drug possession arrests are marijuana related and adding to that the arrests of marijuana sales and cultivation, which accounts for six percent, it adds up to fifty percent of total drug related arrests. Second, legalizing marijuana will give birth to a new industry, which where it has been legalized it has become among the top revenue industries. Third, the taxation of the product could represent a source of income for states and can be used to educate the youth on marijuana policy, their uses and effects. Last and not least important, would be the reduction of incarceration and criminal records made for people arrested on marijuana related
The Controlled Substances Act classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug, making it illegal to use and possess. It also defines marijuana as having no medical use, something that has been proved to be false by the Food and Drug Administration. What is even more ironic, is the fact that the United States government has a patent on Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants. Patent US6630507 B1, states that “cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzhemer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia. The patent, if anything, proves the current policy on marijuana is outdated and in need of reform. The federal government, to some extent, recognizes the medical properties of marijuana, but it has not made it official. This is why many advocates in favor and against marijuana have petitioned the federal government to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule II substance. By rescheduling marijuana as a Schedule II substance, it would mean that the drug has a currently accepted medical use in treatment and would facilitate research