Categorization with alcohol, firearms shows growing acceptance of cannabis
Marijuana has always been antonymous to progress. Often linked with lethargy, inattentiveness and mellowed minds, it doesn’t boast productivity in most cases. However, marijuana laws are starting to undergo real changes, which should alter the way it’s seen in years to come.
Already common — and, for the most part, celebrated — knowledge of Washington and Colorado’s legalization of recreational marijuana use isn’t exactly news, but Democrats and Republicans from all states have been working fervently to make greater state-by-state changes. Recently, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms has adopted marijuana into its list of substances, showing that America is willing to accept and regulate what has been a major consumer product, whether legal or not, for as long as we’ve been in this country.
Representatives of Colorado and Washington obviously have the jump on making legal changes for cannabis in their states and are proposing bills Tuesday that discuss changing the legal limits and the taxes imposed. One option could be to tax each ounce sold by $50. The proposed bills suggest this money would go to law enforcement, substance abuse treatment and the national debt. That low number alone is estimated to bring in $20 billion a year for each state. If other states adopt these laws and begin to allow profiting from one of the most exchanged and easily available drugs around, it’s reasonable to suggest the national debt would soon disappear.
When the government tried to rid America of alcohol with Prohibition, the ratified amendment lasted only 13 years because there was so much resistance. People wouldn’t accept the outlaw of alcohol, and their resistance gave birth to big changes in American history like moonshining, where people raced cars in the middle of the night to move crates of alcohol.
If anything, the reason alcohol was relegalized so quickly, and why it’s the most socially acceptable drug, is because of the strong effect it has on its users. Marijuana has been accused of being addictive, but which substance led its race cars in the middle of the night and directly challenged the government’s law? Which group sat back and relaxed until the government passed its decision in its own time? Cannabis has been legally banned more than three times longer than Prohibition lasted, and it’s about time there was a change. Our jails have filled with petty criminals because of the laws put in place to stop the trafficking of the product as well. Jails fill up as teenagers are nabbed for selling relatively small amounts, but once inside they are exposed to real criminals and real drugs, which can often lead to a downward spiral of criminal activities that lasts their whole lives.
People are finally starting to realize that marijuana could have as much of a healing quality on our nation’s debt crisis as it does on people in treatment for diseases. The changing laws are a reflection of this legitimization.