Colorado is one of the biggest marijuana consuming and cultivating states in The United States with an overall 13.6% population consuming it (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, n.d.). The fact that it is one of the largest market for marijuana all over the world makes the history of marijuana in Colorado very interesting.
The timeline of Marijuana in Colorado starts from the year 1917, when the Marijuana was prohibited. Colorado first restricted marijuana on March30, 1917. This prohibition then came to an end in the year 1975 when marijuana was Decriminalized in Colorado which was then followed by Legalizing of Medical Marijuana in the year 2000. On November 7, 2000 under ‘Amendment 20’ which amended the State Constitution to allow the use of Marijuana in the state for approved patients in written medical consent (Colorado Amendment 20, 2000). The major change happened in the year 2012 when the Amendment 64 was passed. Under this amendment in November 2012, the state legalized Recreational Marijuana consumption and cultivation for the people above age of 21 (Colorado Amendment 64, 2012).
The times when Marijuana was criminalized in Colorado, the number of people arrested because of even a small amount of marijuana possession, the penalty would be $1000 and six months in jail. This criminal record would cause a lot of problems for people for the people who in the future times in the form of employment opportunities reduction. This prohibition of cannabis and criminalization of its usage does not deter people from consuming it. More importantly, the illegal drug market was on rise that time because of this criminalization. So a legal form of cannabis control was needed.
The cannabis was then decriminalized in 1975 because of the following evidences. First, Prohibition wont succeed in deterring cannabis use. Second, the risks and harms of cannabis are lower than those of tobacco and alcohol which has always been legal in the society. Third, Cannabis can and should be separated from illicit drug markets, in which users are exposed to much more harmful illegal drugs.
But even Decriminalization of cannabis proved to be only half effective. It failed to address many of the following harms that were related to the prohibition of cannabis use. First, as the cannabis still remained unregulated in the market, the users had very little or no knowledge about the potency, type or quality of the product. Second, till the time cannabis still remained illegal, it was very difficult for the people, society and the government to prevent and remove the stereotypes about marijuana. Third, decriminalization may encourage the commercialization of cannabis production and distribution without giving the government any control or regulatory tools.
So this resulted in Legalization of Medical Marijuana in Colorado in the year 2000. The main focus of legalizing cannabis was that it would remove the social harms and costs of prohibition. The principles to guide health focused cannabis control included the following framework and principles. 1. Establishment of a government monopoly on sales. 2. Setting up minimum age for cannabis purchase and consumption. 3. Limit of the sales. 4. Curbing the demand through prices. 5. Clear display of product information. 6. Investment in education and prevention about this.
In this high time of Globalization where growth in terms of all the agricultural, industrial and societal development, the legalization of marijuana surely has made a great contribution in the advancement of the overall economy of America and its states, especially Colorado, Washington, Oregon etc. But considering the other nations and their states who still believe that legalizing marijuana may jeopardize the economy and the society. This makes it important to study that legalizing marijuana can cause both positive and negative impacts on the economy and the society, and especially the ones consuming it.
Over the past decade, the literature in the field of marijuana shows that legalization may have boosted up the development of the economy in many respects, but there are many impacts of marijuana legalization that can put the economy and the society in danger.
As this paper focuses on the Health and Economic impacts of Marijuana Legalization in Colorado, the following studies show how marijuana has affected the above two sectors.
Talking about the Economic impacts, recent studies on this topic found that the legalization of marijuana played a very big and important role on the Macro level. As 13.6% of the total population in Colorado consumed legal marijuana in the year 2014, it is quite visible the amount of revenues that were generated because of its sales. The legal marijuana activities in Colorado generated $2.39 billion in state output and has created 18,005 new Full-Time-Equivalent (FTE) positions in the year 2015. Also the spending on marijuana creates more output and employment per dollar spent than 90% of Colorado industries (Miles Light, 2016). According to the Marijuana Policy Group (MPG), the legal marijuana demand is projected to grow by 11.3% per year through 2020. (Miles Light, 2016).
The Legalization has also played a very important role in the Budgetary Savings of the state. Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron stated that legalization will reduce the need for prosecutorial, judicial, correctional and police resource spending by approximately $7.7 billion to $13.7 billion per year (J. Miron, The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition, 2005, p. 1-29) (Evans).
Out of all this legal marijuana consumption, in January of 2009, the medical marijuana registry listed 5,051 valid medical IDs in Colorado. This number increased to 111,031 residents with valid Red Cards who are above the age of 21. Out of all these card holders, two thirds are male and the rest are female. Which means marijuana consumer population is more close than the general population of Colorado, i.e. 101.4 males for every 100 females.
This medically sold marijuana in Colorado is subject to state and local sales taxes, but the retail marijuana is also subject to a 15% excise tax and 10% special sales tax. On the top of that, each city can apply higher tax rates to the retail marijuana.(MPG)
The total sales of legal marijuana in Colorado for the year 2015 is $996 billion. So with all the basic major facts and the data, it can clearly be seen that on a wider level, marijuana has enhanced the overall economy of the state.
On the other hand, when considered the individuals consuming and cultivating marijuana and the small sectors of the society, the marijuana legalization played the opposite role. The researches focused on the harmful side of marijuana. It was seen that the use of marijuana which was supposed to be more for medical use consumed by older adults was very low compared to the consumption by the young adults (18-24 years). According to the Colorado Government Statistics, younger adults are nearly 10 times as likely to use marijuana as older adults (Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, n.d.).
Cases are also there where it is shown that marijuana is addictive. Overtime, overstimulation of the endocannabinoid system by marijuana use can cause changes in the brain that lead to addiction, a condition in which a person can’t stop using a drug even though it interferes with many aspects of his or her life (National Institute on Drug Abuse, July ,2012 p. 5).
The Impact on Public Health was even more severe from which there was no turning back. It was found that chronic exposure to marijuana smoke can increase the risk of developing respiratory obstruction, collapsed lungs, infertility etc. (Evans). Disturbances in mental health are also focused under this level where illness like mood disorders, latent schizophrenia and dependence are found.
But some other researches also show that Cannabis is not a benign substance and its health harms increase with the intensity and the frequency of the use. It was found even though Cannabis consumption may lead to problems with cognitive and psychomotor functioning. Talking about the respiratory problems that marijuana consumption may cause, it was found that excess marijuana consumption did cause respiratory problems to many users, but the intensity and the damage was not that long lasting and not as severe as tobacco and alcohol consumption. CAMH stated in their research that tobacco smoking contributes greatly to or is the primary reason for the respiratory problems.
When the Dependency on marijuana is considered, only about 9% of the total consumers get dependent on cannabis which is very less compared to the dependency of people on tobacco and alcohol, which was 68% and 23% respectively.
Also, CAMH states that these risks to health caused by cannabis can be reduced if, first, the use is delayed until the early adulthood. Second, frequent or daily use is avoided. Third, users shift from smoking cannabis to less harmful alternatives like cannabis edibles or vaporizers.
Coming to the consumption of marijuana by the youth and the under aged (12 to 17 years). In the year 2012, average of 10.47% of youth was consuming marijuana which ranked Colorado 4th in the nation. This rank of marijuana use among youth was 14th for Colorado in the year 2006. There was a 26% increase in the marijuana consumption by the youth of Colorado. Also there was a 32% increase in drug related suspensions and expulsions in Colorado for the academic school years 2008/2009 to 2012/2013.
As the main aim behind legalization was for the government to get a better control over the distribution and production of marijuana and thus reduce the activities in black market, but despite all that, legalization has not reduced the black market activity in Colorado. The crime filings have boosted up in Colorado. From only one filing which was present in the year 2007, the number of crime filings has increased to 40 in the year 2015. Also this legalization has also opened the gates for Mexican Cartel operations in the heart of the US. “The Criminals are still selling on the black market. We have plenty of cartel activity in Colorado (and) plenty of illegal activity that has not decreased at all”, Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman.
As the consumption of marijuana has been spread in all the age groups in a significant manner, the impact on the business and the workforce has also been clearly noticed. The Positive Workplace Oral Drug Test results have showed up a significant hike in the number of people who were tested positive of marijuana consumption in the workplace.
Also the percentage of people who have missed work for the past 30 days “Because thet didn’t want to be there” accounted for about 15% for marijuana users and 7.9% for alcohol users. This may indicate that consumption of marijuana may induce laziness and reduce the willingness to work, thus affecting the productivity.
The overall number of traffic deaths related to marijuana has increased, but still remaining very low compared to alcohol and other narcotic drugs. The number of deaths in the year 2006 was 37 which rose to 115 in the year 2015.
From the literature, getting a brief idea about the positive and negative side of legalizing marijuana made it and even important issue to be focused on so that the public health and safety is maintained. Therefore, it is crucial to study about all these impacts of marijuana legalization on the state economy and health so that the use of marijuana both medically and recreationally does not turn out to be a risky venture for the economy and public health and safety.