Marijuana Proposition 64 California

The legalization of marijuana is probably one of the best propositions we can do. There are many reasons why we should vote yes on this Proposition.

Marijuana relaxes the body, and usually, nothing bad ever happens when using it. Marijuana comes from the earth, and it is not mixed with any chemicals. You cannot overdose on it.  This is one major factor why the government should legalize recreational marijuana.

The government can tax the overall sells of marijuana purchases. Most of the taxes that are taking out are going to go to youth programs, environmental protection, and law enforcement. If marijuana became legal, that would lower the cost to California because there would be less criminal acts.

In the last decade, there were about 500,000 thousand arrests for marijuana. For each year between 2006-2015, there were about 14,000 felony arrests for marijuana. In 2015 there were about 9,000 felony arrests just for marijuana. Black and Mexicans are arrested more than any other race over marijuana. All the people that have gotten convicted for having marijuana can get a fine up to $2000, jail time (up to a year in prison), mandatory drug test, drug awareness class, and electronic monitoring.

All of these costs would cost over $2000. You have to pay up to $375 for drug awareness class. It cost about $47,000 to house an intimate per year in California. In 2000-2001 the annual rate went up by $19,500. The cost of the drug test can be up to $125 to the state. Usually, once a month can be a drug test, $125×12 can add up $1,500 a year. Depending on how many drug tests.

Putting all these costs together will be almost $50,000 for one person. If you multiply that by just 100 people that’s $500,000 for the state. The state is spending millions on just low-level marijuana charges.

Legalizing marijuana in California will bring tourist to California that will bring money from those visitors. They will pay money because they will buy products from businesses. They will want to live in California because marijuana became legal. Opening marijuana shops will bring more jobs and more opportunity to the ones that already smoke weed. Passing this proposition will slowly decrease the flow of people getting arrested. In Washington, Oregon, Colorado and Alaska, all of these states have legalized marijuana, which statistics have shown a decrease in crime. These states have taxed the sale of marijuana.

In the state of Washington the violent crime rate has gone down 10%, a 13% murder rate has gone down, and 6% burglaries have gone down.  There is no need to pay for prosecuting. The cost for the state would be about $1000 to $2000 because they had to get a defense attorney, police overtime if they show up, and other court expense cost.

Between 2000 and 2010 the state was spending over $200 million a year on low-level marijuana offenses. The total tax revenues have made over 80 million dollars because there is less arrest for small amounts of marijuana and from marijuana sales. The state of Washington is now saving millions and millions of dollars every year. This money now can go to schools, new roads, law enforcement, and new development.

In Denver Colorado, the violent crime rate decreased 2.2% in the 11 months in 2014. Burglaries have gone down 9.5%, and all overall property has declined by 8.9%. In 2010 almost 10,000 people got arrested for marijuana, it has dropped 84%. It cost around $300 to resolve the issue.

By not spending over or under $300 could save millions. $300×10,000 is 3,000,000 million dollars. Between January 2014-October 2014 marijuana sales made 40.9 million dollars. Colorado set aside 2.5 million to give to the health professionals in public schools.  The money help fulfills the large cap in the education system. It had suffered from budget cuts for the health workers due to the budget cuts in 2011.

In Oregon, the sales of selling marijuana have made over $60 million dollars. The government has made 14.9 million dollars in tax revenue out of the $60 million. Every sale is taxed 25 percent. In Southwest Beaverton-Hillsdale Highway about 400-800 people are coming on a Friday.

In 2012 58.6% got arrested for having marijuana. 21,856 were arrested for drug crimes. 12,808 of those were marijuana arrests or given a ticket. If you didn’t arrest people for low-level marijuana charges, they would save a lot of money, millions; just like Washington.

Proposition 64 is a good argument to have on the ballot. Proposition 64 is the legalization of marijuana. Almost everyone uses marijuana today that’s why it’s on the ballot. People use marijuana because it relaxes them. It helps fight against disorders or symptoms you might have.

Anyone that wants to purchase marijuana has to be 21 years or older. Setting the age limit at 21 is good. Being 21 means that you are out of high school and cannot sell to underage kids. It’s harder to be around people that are minors; they can’t supply marijuana to minors. You may smoke weed at your house or on private property. You may have 28.5 grams, which is almost 1 gram. You may have up to 8 grams of hash. We also can have up to 8 plants of marijuana in a private resident. Giving away marijuana is also a plus, the amount you can give to a person that is not a minor is 28.5 grams and up to 8 grams of hash.

The taxes can reach over a billion dollars a year in California. In the next decade or so it can reach up to $11 billion dollars just from taxes. All retail sales will be taxed %15 percent. A farming tax is $9.25 per ounce for flowers and $2.75 per ounce for leaves. Taxes can be changed starting 2020.

A place that sells marijuana has to be at least 600 feet away from a school, day care center, and youth center. A pot shop cannot sell alcohol or tobacco.

By saying yes on Proposition 64, it will decrease the crime rate, bring millions of dollars to California and will create jobs. There will not be a black market.  This is a smart way for California to fight budget deficits and the high cost of living.

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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency.