Amendment 64 | Teen Ink

Amendment 64

January 10, 2013
By skriblesson BRONZE, Westminster, Colorado
skriblesson BRONZE, Westminster, Colorado
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

To overdose on marijuana a single person would have to smoke 40,000 times as much weed as it takes to get said person stoned, it only takes 10 times as much alcohol for said person to overdose. Amendment 64 is a good law for America, because it will lower the state’s deficit, decrease the number of overcrowded prisons, and grant legal access.

Legalizing marijuana will lower the deficit immensely. It will lower it by taxing weed like alcohol and tobacco. Fifteen precent of this taxing could go towards schools and education. By taxing weed we will be able to put so much towards getting the U.S out of this debt. “Legalizing ganja would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. $5.3 billion of these savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $2.4 billion are would accrue to federal government” (Miron). In addition there will be less money spent on law enforcement and court costs.

Another thing that amendment 64 will do is decrease the number of overcrowding of prisons. The amendment will take all the non-violent marijuana related criminals out and let them go. 64 will also get rid of the court costs, lawyer, and police officer costs. Decreasing the number of overcrowded jails will be a great part of this law so police officers will be spending more time looking for crimes unrelated to pot and spend more time looking for more violent crimes; plus they will have somewhere to put these offenders.

Lastly legalizing marijuana will provide legal access to all Coloradans. A single could grow up to six plants, three mature and three immature plants. That person could give up to an ounce as a gift to other people of legal age. “The 536 medical marijuana dispensaries owners in Colorado could start selling to the general public”. (Kamin) Therefore all the innocent dispensary owners would not be drug out and arrested for just doing their job. Marijuana is a non-addictive drug unlike tobacco which is legal.

If marijuana is non-addictive and is nearly impossible to overdose on, then why is it illegal? If every state made a law like Amendment 64, then it would get all the states’ out of this huge debt, reduce overcrowding of prisons and grant legal access to those that are of legal age. Amendment 64 is right for America and every state should write and pass an amendment like Colorado’s Amendment 64.


The author's comments:
This is a persuasive essay for my English class about Amendment 64.

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 0 comments.