The Legalization of Marijuana and Its effects in the Economy Research Paper

The Legalization of Marijuana and Its effects in the Economy - Research Paper Example On the other hand, the costs in terms of increase in crime rates, health and mortality rates due to increased addiction to Marijuana and other drugs, loss of quality of life and social and psychological affliction are immense. The paper concludes with the understanding that legalization should only be limited to medicinal purposes and not completely just as a total remedy for providing the US economy a boost. Marijuana has a long legal history in the United States and has always been in the centre of controversies for a long time. The debate related to marijuana stems from the lawful use of marijuana for medicinal purposes or as a recreation drug. During the early 1900s, marijuana became a prohibited drug in many states of America (Deitch, 2003). According to Deitch, after the formation of the Uniform State Narcotic Drug Regulation, marijuana was put under prohibition in all the states of the United States of America. After the 1970s, there was a wide uproar to remove the prohibition on Marijuana and legalize the sale of medical marijuana. This attempt led to a widespread debate among the different factions about the legalization of marijuana. Legalization of Marijuana was a subject of additional controversy after it was argued that with if drug is made legal; the economy of a state could flourish because of the excise duty that would be imposed on it. This sparkled further debate with re gard to marijuana as it is very difficult to understand whether the benefits of legalizing marijuana would be higher than the negative effects that this legalisation may bring about. Hence, the legalization of marijuana has become a very controversial topic in the United States of America. This has resulted in two different schools of thought, the pro marijuana legalization group and the anti marijuana legalization group. The group that favours the legalization of marijuana include the Physician’s Association for AIDS care and the National Cancer Foundation as it comes in very useful to help the terminally ill patients. The Drug Enforcement Agency and the police force are against the legalization for marijuana for they strongly believe that there would be an increase in the crime rate, once this drug is legalized. 1.2 Problem Statement Will legalizing Marijuana in the United States will benefit the economy and society? 1.3 Objectives of the Study The aim of this study is to u nderstand the impact of legalization of marijuana from an economic perspective. In light of the controversial and debatable process of legalization, it is necessary to understand the different pros and cons of each side of argument. This study would explore all different aspects that