Not Only Has The World Not Come to An End,
MJ Legalization Has Made the World Better
Not only has the world not come to an end, but marijuana legalization appears to making the world better. A free 58 page booklet from the Drug Policy Alliance, From Prohibition to Progress: A Status Report on Marijuana Legalization, clearly and concisely establishes how and why marijuana legalization is working so far.
Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state, and Washington, D.C. have all legalized marijuana. Vermont has become the first state to legalize marijuana through its legislature instead of at the ballot box.
Legalization ballot initiatives for the 2018 election have been filed in Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Nebraska and South Dakota while state legislators in.Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York are considering legalization legislation.
To understand the effect and scope of marijuana legalization, the booklet examines the impact of marijuana legalization by focusing on four measures: social justice, public health, road safety, and state economics. It provides much-needed information as to what happens when a state legalizes marijuana for adult-use. As it turns out, there is very little bad and an awful lot of good.
States are saving significant sums of money and protecting the public all at the same time by comprehensively regulating marijuana for adult use.
One of the key findings is that the average number of arrests in states that have legalized marijuana have plummeted by over 90% saving states millions of dollars and preventing the criminalization of thousands of people.
Most amazing is the positive effect marijuana legalization has on public safety and health.
- Contrary to the predictions of drug prohibitionists, youth marijuana use has remained stable in states that have legalized.
- Access to legal marijuana is associated with reductions in some of the most troubling harms associated with opioid use, including opioid overdose deaths and untreated opioid use disorders.
What should gladden the hearts of both lawmakers and taxpayers is that states are exceeding their marijuana revenue estimates and filling their coffers with hundreds of millions of dollars. Most importantly states are putting this money to very good use.
Colorado, Nevada and Oregon combined are providing hundreds of millions of dollars to state schools. Washington allocates 55% of its marijuana tax revenue to fund basic health plans. Drug and alcohol treatment programs receive significant funding in most states.
Of particular interest relating to social justice, California and Massachusetts invest a substantial share of their marijuana tax revenues in the communities most adversely impacted by drug arrests and incarceration, particularly low-income communities of color, to help repair the harms of unequal drug law enforcement.
Counter to the claims that marijuana legalization will result in bloody carnage on our roadways, the report finds that DUI arrests are down in Colorado and Washington. Most significantly the report finds that there is no correlation between marijuana legalization and automobile collisions as crash rates in both states are statistically similar to comparable states without legal marijuana.
Not only is legal marijuana filling state coffers it is also filling people’s pockets. Preliminary estimates suggest that the legal marijuana industry employs between 165,000 to 230,000 full and part-time workers across the country. As more states legalize marijuana and replace their unregulated markets with new legal markets, the number of jobs will skyrocket.
It’s not all nirvana however as the report notes consuming marijuana in public is illegal in all jurisdictions that have legalized marijuana for adults 21 and older. This means that people who lack the means to pay the fines and fees, or those without homes or in federally-subsidized housing, risk being jailed for consuming a lawful substance. Public use violations are also disproportionately enforced against people of color, particularly Black people.
Although marijuana legalization has reduced historically high numbers of youth (under 18 years of age) and young adults (between 18 and 20 years old) from being stopped and arrested for marijuana offenses, these reductions are inconsistent from state-to-state.
The statistics are astounding and there is so much more to the report then I have summarized here, so download a copy for yourself by CLICKING HERE. Good news travels slowly so help speed it up by sending copies to your friends, family members, co-workers and associates of all kinds who were doubting Thomas’s about the wisdom of legalizing marijuana.
Making Babies With Marijuana is Fun and Efficacious
Previous studies examining the effects of marijuana use on reproductive hormones and semen quality have produced conflicting results including the oft-cited study that marijuana slows sperm motility reducing the likelihood that it will arrive at the egg to do its thing.
Stop fretting as a new study entitled Marijuana Use and Fecundability in a North American Preconception Cohort Study issued by researchers at Boston University's School of Public Health has reported that marijuana use - by either men or women - does not lower a couple's chances of getting pregnant.
Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the study evaluated the association between female and male use of marijuana and fecundability (the probability of conception) in 1,125 couples over a period of four years.
The study’s lead author Lauren Wise stated the importance of this study as “Given the increasing number of states legalizing recreational marijuana across the nation, we thought it was an opportune time to investigate the association between marijuana use and fertility,”
About 15 percent of couples’ experience infertility costing the US healthcare system more than $5 billion per year. Identifying modifiable risk factors for infertility, including recreational drug use, is of public health importance. Marijuana is one of the most widely used recreational drugs among individuals of reproductive age so people need to know whether using marijuana can lower their chances of conceiving.
The bottom line was that conception probabilities did not differ among couples who used marijuana versus those who did not. The authors concluded "In this preconception cohort study, there was little overall association between female or male marijuana use and fecundability.”
If you find marijuana for sex is exciting, erotic and enjoyable, keep right on being excited, erotized and enjoyed. If you haven’t used marijuana for sex, it’s long past time you give it try. Bet you won’t do it just once.
Dennis Peron Remembrance, 2nd Hand Smoke & 1 Year of Legalization at Wedneday, Feb. 7 Moreno Valley MAPP meet
It's that most joyous time of the month again in the western Inland Empire with the upcoming MAPP meeting this Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in Moreno Valley. We will be taking a look at the first month of legal adult-use sales of 
marijuana in California and how it is progressing in the Inland Empire. You will also be given a sneak preview of the questionnaire that will be circulated to candidates running for office in the June primary and learn how the information will be used to grade candidates’ A – F on issues relating to marijuana.
We will also memorialize the life of Dennis Peron who died last Saturday at the much too young age of 72. Lauded as the father of medical marijuana legalization, Dennis lead a colorful and productive life that has impacted us all.
Grab a loved one, friend, family member or co-worker and join us at the Wednesday, Feb. 7 MAPP meeting at 7:30 p.m. at the Greenview Medical Clinic at 22275 Alessandro Blvd., Moreno Valley CA 92553. Milk and cookie will be served.
Nothing
big and ostentatious this time, just a small little appeal asking you
to join our 420 Club and donate $4.20 a month to help provide the
resources to continue to educate the literate and infuriate the
illiterate.
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