"I think that marijuana should not only be legal, I think it should be a cottage industry. It would be wonderful for the state of Maine. There's some pretty good homegrown dope. I'm sure it would be even better if you could grow it with fertilizers and have greenhouses." ~Stephen King

            The demand for marijuana is rising fast, and with more demand comes more supply.  It is no longer smuggled over from Mexico; the highest grade of marijuana is grown locally right here in America.  With this happening it not only cripples the cartel movements of drugs in and out of America, it puts less cost on the war on drugs because we would no longer have to arrest people for it.  Marijuana arrests in the United States are made every 42 seconds, and over President Obama’s first 4 1/2 years he spent $285 Million on actions just against medical marijuana alone.  In Arkansas 86% of total arrests were for possession of marijuana and 90% of those marijuana arrests were for a possession of one ounce or less, which is a misdemeanor.  While all the marijuana arrests were being made 91% of homicide cases went unsolved.  If legalized, the supplies will go up which will then drop the price of high quality marijuana down from an existing price of $375 an ounce, to $38 an ounce. With the high demand existing and the price dropping so dramatically, more people will purchase it, which in turn makes a lot of tax dollars. 

            People who smoke marijuana are known to be pretty lazy, but one thing I’ve noticed about those lazy people is that they will move to a different seat for weed. These people will go get jobs if they will be able to work with marijuana at their job.  These jobs include growers, distributers, industrial hemp, and even Marijuana advertising.  More jobs and businesses will equal more tax payers, plus the taxes that’s already put on the weed that’s millions of dollars that could go towards things more important than arresting someone for having weed. In Colorado, where marijuana is completely legal, taxes collect by marijuana sales is expected to reach $70 million per year. 

           Putting more regulation on it means it can be dispensed further away from schools, and by legalizing it and putting an age on it, like in Colorado, it takes it out of the hands of drug dealers and then make it easier to keep it out of school.  We can also make marijuana give back to charity.  In 2012 at least 10 medical marijuana dispensaries in Colorado where reported to have donated $10,000 - $12,000 to charity.  People who are anti-legalization claim that it would cost too much money to regulate the plant,  and it wouldn’t even put a dent in the deficit, but in reality it would pay for the laws to regulate it and it has the potential to improve the economy and communities around America.