Thomas Jefferson once said, “Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country.” Although the second President of the United State wasn’t a stoner, Jefferson saw the potential growth the county could enjoy if marijuana was embraced.
On Nov. 7, Secretary of State Robin Carnahan approved a petition to allow the Show-Me Cannabis group to gather signatures with the motives of placing an amendment legalizing marijuana on the November 2012 ballot. The Show-Me Cannabis Initiative needs 150,000 signatures in order for the amendment, which would allow citizens 21 and over to purchase, possess and consume marijuana, to get on the ballot.
Show-Me Cannabis’s website states the group “is an association of organizations and individuals who believe that cannabis prohibition is a failed policy, and regulating cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol would better control the production, distribution and consumption of cannabis than the current criminal market system does.”
The legalization of marijuana in the state of Missouri would be a huge jump in the right direction. Besides helping to minimize the pain some patients with untreatable diseases (e.g. HIV/AIDS, Glaucoma, and Muscular Spasticity) as 16 states that have already legalized medical marijuana have done. The legalization would also reserve the current path the state of Missouri is on, ignoring millions of dollars in jobs and taxes, wasting time and money on arresting petty criminals.
The legalization would have an unimaginable impact on the economy, as the jobs created to serve the marijuana market would be incredible. People who have to grow, refine, test, transport and sell marijuana, along with other industries would be created for marijuana paraphernalia. California, where only medical marijuana is legalized, has a marijuana industry that grosses $14 billion a year, and as the bill calls for, those billions would be taxed. This would create a tremendous amount of tax revenue, which in turn could be used to improve the school system, highways, or create more jobs.
If marijuana was legalized, Missouri would become a tourist destination just like the Netherlands, whose marijuana industry sells nearly $3 billion a year to tourists.
Those statistics don’t even include the benefits of the growing of hemp, a eco-friendly plant that can be used to make a wide variety of things such as clothes and paper (one acre of hemp produces the same amount of paper as 40 acres of trees).
Typically, those who oppose marijuana would make an argument about its “health risks.” Despite the supposed risks, a UCLA study showed that not only is there no link between marijuana and lung cancer, but the drug kills aging cells and keeps them from becoming cancerous.
Under current Missouri law, if you are caught in possession of anything less than 35 grams of marijuana, your punishment is a $1,000 fine along with up to one year in jail. Compared to a DUI, where a person’s first offense only lands them a fine up to $500 and up to 6 months in jail, this sentence is way to big a punishment. Why should the less crime have a more serious punishment? It shouldn’t.
Although no students at MHS would be instantly impacted by the legalization of marijuana if the measure passed next November, people need to recognize the opportunities legalization can create. Marijuana already has a massive influence on society, and legalization would create only a more positive future for the state of Missouri.