The legalization of marijuana is a controversial and multifaceted matter and is a subject of tough debates. Valid arguments are posed by both sides of the debate against and for legalization. Because of the completely opposed stands, the way in which the U.S. considers the drug has led to a patchwork of acceptance. Washington and Colorado, are the first two states to legalize marijuana and have developed sound regulatory means which employ the Cole and Ogden memos as their basis. As such, this writeup examines the pros and cons of marijuana legalization since 2012 in Washington and Colorado in three aspects. The three aspects are related to issues surrounding the growers, the stores selling the product and issues that law enforcement is dealing with as a result of criminal and/or civil penalties. Washington and Colorado have created for-profit commercial industry systems for regulation of marijuana that are controlled by their respective state agencies. The regulatory systems tax at production and sale points of marijuana regulate sales and quantity, control marketing as well as labeling of the product. Also, the systems institute criminal background checks for employees working in the firms and conduct tracking of real plants across their growth (Hickenlooper, 2014) . Marijuana legalization in select states paves way for them to create legal markets that take of everyone irrespective of state bounds. As such, marijuana-legal states are majoring in legal and regulatory disparity. Hence, they are at a vantage position to reap the more fiscally. Crimes in marijuana legal states have decreased significantly. Legal marijuana has diverted users from the black market. For instance, in Washington at the drug being legalized fully, court filings reduced 97% for low-vel marijuana offenses by adults above 21 years (Caulkins, Lee & Kasunic, 2012) . Also, more important, from 200 to 2010, more than $200 million was spent by Washington state on marijuana (Caulkins, Lee & Kasunic, 2012) enforcement. Due to the decline in low-level marijuana arrests expenses on this kind of crime possibly have saved the state millions of dollars. Reducing the enforcement costs of marijuana-based crimes is one of the basis of pro-marijuana debate. Further, the lack of the possibility of being arrested for low-marijuana crimes in an incentive for users. Without surprise, when a substance that is illegal suddenly becomes legal, the anticipation is that criminal cases in the given region will reduce. Increased quality and quantity of marijuana products in the legal states of the U.S. underpins the fact that the necessity to smuggle the substance from foreign nations will significantly decline. Legal marijuana is less expensive to produce as it is in most instances grown locally, plus it is more effective than marijuana obtained through the black market. Apparently, criminal strives to minimize the cost of production to remain competitive in the U.S. will keep on becoming more difficult because cannabis increasingly becomes more widespread in legal markets (Hickenlooper, 2014). On the other hand, there are ill trends in terms of substance crimes within the marijuana-legal states that can occur. Excess of law enforcement resources is channeled to different areas of substance crime. More cases of arrests to other non-narcotic drugs. In the Colorado state drug crimes due to possessing of dangerous non-narcotic substance has risen 7.5% amid 2012 and 2015, whereas marijuana possession crimes have declined 5.2% over the same period (Hickenlooper, 2014) . Migration of drug trafficking to other dangerous non-narcotic substances can occur in criminal firms due to the supposed loss of share in black-market marijuana. Overall, legalizing marijuana can bring positive benefits like in Washington and Colorado states. Additionally, consumers in the marijuana-legal states and also those outside those states contribute to a large sales percentage within the legal models. As a result, marijuana black markets will lose their market share.
References
Caulkins, J., Lee, M., & Kasunic, A. (2012). Marijuana Legalization: Lessons from the 2012 State Proposals. World Medical & Health Policy , 4 (3-4), 4-34. doi: 10.1002/wmh3.2
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HICKENLOOPER, G. (2014). Experimenting with Pot: The State of Colorado's Legalization of Marijuana. Milbank Quarterly , 92 (2), 243-249. doi: 10.1111/1468-0009.12056
