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At a time when California is about to vote on legalizing more than just medical Marijuana, this infographic from Cannagraphic.com does a great job of showing what pot legalization is up against due to common misconceptions. The infographic begins by showing how the U.S. government compares to the UK when determining what drugs are dangerous and what are not. Clearly, in the UK, the perception is that marijuana is the least dangerous drug out there, yet in the U.S., our government ranks it as being just as dangerous as LSD, Ecstasy, and Heroin. Our government also views cannabis to be more dangerous than Cocaine and Speed. Now, while I don’t smoke pot, I do have a beer after work every day, which is completely legal. According to this infographic, alcohol is ranked as more dangerous than cannabis by two expert panels of health, science, and crime professionals. So why is it that my drinking a beer every day is legal, while pot is not?
It could be that the US ranks cannabis as dangerous because of the violence that goes along with selling drugs, or the damage done to houses when they become grow houses, but many experts believe that this violence and damage would go away if marijuana was legalized. The next section of the infographic shows how this could be the case, by covering drug arrests, with marijuana related drug arrests making up for 50% of all arrests. That said, the infographic then goes on to show just how much it costs to keep people in prison for drug arrests, which is over $6 billion each year. Now, if 50% of those were taken away because of cannabis being legalized, our country would save over $3 billion each year in tax dollars.
Speaking of tax dollars, the infographic also shows how cannabis can be taxed just like tobacco, which would earn the United States over $728 billion in tax revenues each year!
The infographic concludes with a chart about annual causes of death from drugs in the U.S. and shows that cannabis causes 0 deaths each year, while smoking causes 435,000 deaths! Now the fact remains that there are “lies, damned lies, and statistics” and this entire infographic uses a lot of statistics that have various dependencies associated to them. With that in mind, the infographic is still highly enlightening and proves its point rather well. As mentioned before, I don’t smoke pot, but those I know that do don’t seem more hindered by it than someone is by smoking or drinking… in fact, they seem far less changed by it. This is why I believe that cannabis will have to be legalized soon, especially to help our country get out of dept. The fact remains that people will continue to smoke even regardless, but by legalizing marijuana, houses wouldn’t be turned into grow houses, cannabis related violence would stop, and the nation would reap the financial benefits.
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