Weed why legalize it

And, of course, some people just want to be able to toke up without the government getting in the way. Opponents of legalization worry that fully allowing recreational marijuana use would make pot far too accessible and, as a result, expand its use and misuse.

Among alcohol users, for instance, the top 10 percent of users consume, on average , more than 10 drinks each day. Marijuana users exhibit similar patterns. For the marijuana industry, that makes the heaviest users the most lucrative customers. But I think we have a horrible history of dealing with these kinds of things.

Drug policy experts say there are alternatives to commercial legalization, like putting state governments in charge of marijuana production and sales, which could tame the for-profit incentive and give states more direct control over prices and who buys pot. But legalization opponents worry that any move toward legalization will inevitably attract powerful for-profit forces, especially since the marijuana industry has already taken off in several states.

When I look at how things are set up in states like Colorado, where the marijuana industry gets a seat at the table for every state decision on marijuana policy, it troubles me. Given these concerns, opponents favor more limited reforms than legalization.

Other critics of legalization support legalizing marijuana for medical purposes but not recreational use. SAM, for instance, broadly agrees that current drug and criminal justice policies are far too punitive and costly. But while they may support some reforms, they feel that legalization simply goes too far — and could lead to worse consequences than the alternatives. In total, millions of people across the US report wanting to quit marijuana and being unable to despite negative consequences.

The most thorough review of the research yet, from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine , linked marijuana use to a variety of other potential downsides, including respiratory issues if smoked , schizophrenia and psychosis , car crashes, lagging academic and other social achievements, and lower birth weight if smoked during pregnancy.

The studies reviewed also suggest it carries several benefits, particularly for chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. The National Academies report emphasized that more research is needed, with a lot of unknowns remaining about marijuana use and its effects. For one, the research has yet to prove if all the problems correlated with cannabis use are actually caused by pot. After all, correlation is not causation. According to surveys from Gallup , support for legalization rose from 12 percent in to 31 percent in to 66 percent in The Pew Research Center found that support varies from generation to generation, although it has been rising among all age groups over the past few years.

As it stands, more than two-thirds of millennials back legalizing marijuana, while support is lower among older groups. The change in public opinion is part of a broader pushback against punitive criminal justice policies and the war on drugs in general. A Pew survey found 63 percent of Americans agree states should move away from harsh mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug crimes, and 67 percent said drug policy should focus more on providing treatment over prosecuting drug users.

Instead, Americans are broadly fed up with drug and criminal justice policies that have contributed to higher incarceration rates while doing little to solve ongoing drug crises. Even as several states and Washington, DC, allow marijuana, the federal government still strictly prohibits pot. That classification puts marijuana in the same category as heroin and a more restrictive category than schedule 2 drugs like cocaine and meth. The big distinction between schedule 1 and 2 substances, instead, is whether the federal government thinks a drug has medical value.

The DEA says schedule 2 substances have some medical value and schedule 1 substances do not, so schedule 1 drugs receive more regulatory scrutiny even though they may not be more dangerous.

Those kinds of studies are traditionally required to prove a drug has medical value to the federal government. But these studies are also much more difficult to conduct when a substance is strictly regulated by the federal government as a schedule 1 drug.

Congress can also pass legislation to reschedule marijuana, which legalization advocates have been lobbying legislators to do for decades. The Trump administration suggested it would take a tougher line under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, but current Attorney General William Barr backed off the tougher approach and said he would more or less go back to the Obama-era policies.

Many state-legal marijuana businesses, for instance, must function as cash-only enterprises , since many banks are nervous about dealing with businesses that are essentially breaking federal law. One concern here is whether the federal government would be in violation of international law if it legalized marijuana. A host of international treaties explicitly ban the legalization of marijuana sales for recreational purposes.

As states have legalized, the US has argued that it remains in good standing of these treaties by keeping pot illegal at the federal level. But that would change if Congress and the president legalized marijuana. So far, Canada and Uruguay have generally dodged scrutiny over their violation of these treaties.

Both parties are ideologically divided over legalizing marijuana. Views on federal enforcement of marijuana laws are unchanged since the question was first asked two years ago. While most Americans support legalizing marijuana, there are concerns about public use of the drug, if it were to become legal. Like overall views of legalizing marijuana, these views have changed little in recent years.

As might be expected, there are sharp differences in these concerns between people who favor and oppose legalizing marijuana. Similar percentages reported using marijuana in the prior 12 months in two previous surveys, conducted in February and March However, there are differences within each party by ideology.

It organizes the public into nine distinct groups, based on an analysis of their attitudes and values. Even in a polarized era, the survey reveals deep divisions in both partisan coalitions. Use this tool to compare the groups on some key topics and their demographics. Pew Research Center now uses as the last birth year for Millennials in our work.

President Michael Dimock explains why. Among the ideas:. There are seven other options in between the two extremes of legalization with no regulation and total prohibition, including standard commercial legalization, reduced criminal penalties, and a Dutch-style system for retail where local outlets, typically coffee-shop-like establishments, can sell small amounts of marijuana but no one else can.

Within these models, there are also plenty of questions that different places should consider: Does a legalization framework address at least some of the damage done by the war on drugs? Does it provide economic opportunities to those who need it most? What is the primary goal or benefit of legalization, and how do you maximize that while minimizing the unintended consequences or downsides? More than propping up any one idea, the argument of the RAND report is that there really are a bunch of alternatives.

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