Arguments against Marijuana Legalization in California - Part One

California’s Secretary of State has certified how the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis act in California has received enough voter signatures to be included on the ballot in November. The arguments for passing the initiative are summarized in California Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act: Part 1. While polls show a 59 percent majority of California voters who have decided to support the marijuana legalization measure, there are opponents of the voter initiative that say the tax pay day is not worth the problems the act will create. Major opponents of the bill include those who believe the act will increase crime and those who believe the act will decrease the quality of marijuana available.

Medical arguments against legal marijuana

While the medical uses of marijuana are under debate, quite a few doctors agree there are some medical uses for the drug. However, if marijuana is legalized, public health could possibly be harmed.

Marijuana is mainly ingested through smoking, and the smoking of any substance, especially long-term, can seriously damage a person’s lungs. Studies have also found that heavy pot smoking can permanently harm short term memory and reaction time. Medical opponents of legal recreational marijuana argue that legalization would increase use, and therefore harm public health.

The crime argument against marijuana legalization

The California Peace Officers Association, among several others, has spoken out against the initiative intended to legalize marijuana. The Association lobbyist has been quoted in several news sources as saying “We have enough problems with alcohol and abuse of pharmaceutical products. Do we really have to add yet another mind-altering substance to the array?”

Opponents also highlight that no matter what California voters determine, federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I drug. Federal law enforcement officials have not been prosecuting small medical marijuana dispensaries or users, but large-scale production and distribution still remains a serious federal crime. If marijuana were to be legalized in California, it could draw organized crime and drug cartels to the state.

Arguments against legal marijuana – Quality

While numerous marijuana smokers and growers usually stand at odds against those who want to keep marijuana illegal, a small coalition is emerging. In Humboldt County, lots of growers and distributors of gray or black market marijuana fear that legalized pot could possibly be economically and socially damaging. Growers fear that if marijuana were legal, it would decrease the sales price of their cash crop. This would put their livelihood and the economic base of much of Humboldt county at risk, sending many of them to credit counseling. As in various other markets, growers worry that legal marijuana would mean corporations would begin producing competition to their crops. Like other farmers in America, pot growers would be forced to compete with agribusinesses, which would increase cost and reduce profit.

There are very outspoken supporters on both sides of California’s Regulate, Control, and Tax Cannabis Act. The debate about legal marijuana has been raging in the United States for over a hundred years, and the result of California’s election is sure to be attentively watched.