The cannabis usage statistics over the centuries has seen a large jump in the beginning of the 21st century and at the rate at which the hype is growing in people all over the world, that day may not be far away when the whole world will be ‘toking’ together in public places without getting into trouble.
At the moment, 29 countries (Excluding the United states since the federal government is still criminalizing any marijuana related offences) of the world has decriminalized laws in practice for personal use of cannabis, meaning, if you are caught smoking or carrying it in small amounts by the police, you will only be given a mere warning or a confiscation of the drug at best, but you will not get into anymore trouble. A lot of the other countries are opening the doors of scientific research of Marijuana for medical usage. The states of Colorado and Washington have set a great example of how to market cannabis and a lot of the other states such as Alaska, California, Maine, Vermont and Rhode Islands are likely to see legalization for recreational use very soon. And as governments start to realize the huge revenue source that is weed, most of the European countries having already decriminalized weed may soon bend their laws a bit more and set up their own legalized marijuana industries collecting bulky revenues for the government. While this may be the best thing since birth for pot smokers, it could also cause taxpayers to pay a reduced income tax since the government has found a bulky revenue source elsewhere. With all the concern over Marijuana being too accessible to the youth if commercialized, the states of Colorado and Washington has in fact shown resolve by regulating it strictly ensuring that teens would not be able to buy the drug, legally that is; they are now using the revenue collected from Marijuana to do public works like building schools, churches, etc.
As the commercialization of Marijuana increases, so does the growth of its industry; the marijuana industry is booming now with Cultivation farms, Recreational pot stores, and Marijuana infused product manufacturing plants popping up everyday and opening up a door to the unemployed. The state of Colorado alone now has 340 pot shops and that’s within 6 months of Legalization! Marijuana legalization was also accompanied by a huge crime rate drop in Colorado, According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting data, the overall crime rate in the state is down 10.1 percent from 2013, while violent crime has decreased by 5.2 percent. The number of burglaries at dispensaries, which are cash-only businesses, has reached a record low.
However, there’s a down side to it all, In May, controls on so-called marijuana edibles were tightened after a college student jumped from a hotel balcony after eating six times the suggested maximum amount of pot-laced cookies and a man also shot and killed his wife while high on Marijuana infused candy. So far this year, the Colorado Children’s Hospital in Denver has treated nine children who have eaten edible marijuana, six of whom became critically ill.
The states of Colorado and Washington have already set an example (minus the collateral damage) which the other states are eager to follow and maybe in the near future, the federal government will follow. And when the United States ‘gives in’ to pot, its probably only a matter of time till countries like Canada, Portugal, Spain, Uruguay, etc start to follow.
Weed is a drug that has always been around (ask your grandpa or your great grandfather or your great great great grandfather for that matter!), but until the 90’s, there was no going forward with it, well, everyone was smoking it, but no one was exploring its possibilities. But with the Millenium came the dawn of the planet of the pot, suddenly everyone discovered that stinky plant with pointy leaves had a lot of possibilities and potential, it’s effect on the human body is amazing yet destructive if you are not able to contain it, its risky, but as a race, we have always liked the risky stuff, haven’t we?
