California’s Secretary of State has certified that the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis act in California has received enough voter signatures to be included on the ballot in November. The reasons for passing the initiative are summarized in ol-tax-cannabis-act-part-1/”>California Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act: Part 1. Naysayers of the bill say how the tax pay day will not be worth the complications of the bill, even though polls show that 59% of decided voters are in favor of the act. Detractors of the bill have one of two major arguments – either the Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis act will cause more crime, or that the act will take away from the quality of grown marijuana.
Medical arguments against legal marijuana
The medical uses of marijuana are fairly well-accepted by some doctors. Public health could possibly be harmed if marijuana is made legal for recreational use.
Marijuana is mainly ingested through smoking, and the smoking of any substance, especially long-term, can seriously damage a person’s lungs. It has also been shown that frequent heavy use of marijuana can permanently hinder short-term memory and reaction time. Medical opponents of legal recreational marijuana argue that legalization would increase use, and therefore negatively affect public health.
Criminal arguments against legal marijuana
The California Peace Officers Association, among many others, has spoken out in opposition to the initiative intended to legalize marijuana. The official association lobbyist, John Lovell, was quoted by CNN as asking “We have enough problems with alcohol and abuse of pharmaceutical products. Do we really need to add yet another mind-altering substance to the array?”
Detractors also point out that, no matter what California voters pass, marijuana stays a Schedule I illegal substance, federally. The possession, sale, and distribution of marijuana remains a serious federal crime, even if enforcement against medical marijuana states has been greatly reduced. If California were to legalize pot, it could entice more organized crime and drug cartels to the state.
Arguments against legal marijuana – Quality
While numerous marijuana smokers and growers usually stand at odds against those who want to keep marijuana illegal, a small coalition is emerging. In Humboldt County, several growers and distributors of gray or black market marijuana fear that legalized pot could be economically and socially damaging. Economically, growers fear that legalized marijuana would significantly reduce the sales price of their cash crop. This would put their livelihood and the economic base of much of Humboldt county at risk, sending quite a few of them to credit counseling. As in numerous other markets, growers worry that legal marijuana would mean corporations would begin producing competition to their crops. Like lots of other small-scale growers in America, the growers would be compelled to compete against agribusinesses, which could drive up the price while driving down the price of their crops.
There are quite a few arguments both for and against the passage of California’s Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis act. The debate about legalization has been raging for over a hundred years, and when California voters go to the polls in November, the result can be closely viewed and hotly debated for a long time to come.
