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Should Marijuana Be Legal in Erie County?
By: Matthew Mascharka
Marijuana, seen as harmful and a gateway drug. But is it really in reality, there has been
many studies and lots of research gathered on the topic since it now is becoming more and more
popular in the United States to legalize it. There are also lots of other facts to look at when
forming your opinion on this topic. Such as how it boosts the economy through taxes,
employment and farming, also it has health benefits like being able to help relieve stress, repress
diseases and reduces pain, and finally it would eliminate or minimize crime by helping to reduce
dealer to dealer business, freedom with marijuana sales and allows focus to be placed on bigger
crimes. In many states throughout the US marijuana has become legal recreationally and
medically, with that in mind you can take the information gathered from other states and cities
and apply it to Erie County. Also with the idea or thought that marijuana is harmful and a
gateway drug people may be against it being legalized, but here is how it could help benefit us in
Erie County by being legalized.
Economy
In Denver Colorado, reporter Kit O’Connell writes about how successful the experiment
of legalizing marijuana has been there in Colorado. Kit says “Colorado reached over $50 million
recreational sales in June, breaking the state’s previous record, according to Ricardo Baca, a staff
writer for Denver Post’s The Cannabist. In addition, medical sales reached 25 million” and goes
on to explain that with other various sales tax on marijuana in Colorado they have earned over
$60 million in tax revenue this year. Along with the legalization citizens and voters in Colorado
approved a 15% excess tax on wholesale only to be used for school construction. They have
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earned $13.6 million and just the first five months of 2015 which is a large increase sense last
year they only generated $13.3 million for the whole year. This money will build new schools
there in Colorado. Now this is a much larger scale then Erie County but if we were to legalize
and tax marijuana like they do in Colorado we could use that tax money to help better our
education system, another thing that could be done with the tax money generated from legalizing
marijuana could be to better the budgets for the school board so then we could renew contracts.
This would have helped earlier in the year when some school teachers went on strike because
their salaries and or contracts we’re not agreed-upon causing students to be out of school because
there was nobody there to teach.
Reporter Mike Adams wrote an article titled “Colorado Generates More Tax Revenue
from Marijuana than Alcohol” and he says “New data released by the Colorado Department of
Revenue indicates the state managed to collect more than $70 million from the sale of cannabis,
while earning less than $42 million from the alcohol industry.” The reason being is that the
average person or customer will typically spend more money on weed then booze also there are
more taxes implicated on marijuana then alcohol thus leading to more money generated. There is
approximately 28% of every sale that goes to the state. The 28% if not legalized is wasted
money by the state essentially. In Erie County we would not be able to collect $70 million but if
we were to tax and regulate marijuana we would be able to generate some revenue but otherwise
it would be going into the illegal drug market.
In California medical marijuana programs have been around for nearly to decades, and
officials there and elsewhere have found new ways to squeeze more money in tax and regulatory
fees from these programs. (Malinowski 9) Here in Erie County even if not legalized for
recreational use but legalized for medical use would still be able to profit and generate revenue
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for this. There are only three planned and allowed dispensaries going into Rhode Island this year
where they have the highest unemployment rate. They are still estimated to collect 1 million in
tax revenue. The money in this industry would be able to help all.
With this legalization of marijuana not only will you be able to tax and generate revenue
but we will be able to open a new market for people to join, creating new employment
opportunities such as; dispensary owners, marijuana farmers, and laborers. This will help us keep
our unemployment rate down while boosting our economy, also it will allow people to have a
source of income that is not welfare if they gain a job in this new industry. Like in Colorado we
will have to establish a regulatory system for tracking the growing, distribution, and sale
marijuana as explained by Andrew Freeman who is the director of marijuana coordination for the
