Regulating marijuana will....
Deny
profits to violent criminal
organizations.
-
Over the past four
decades,
the lack of
regulation and
control over the
marijuana market has
played a central
role in the creation
of
some of the most
powerful criminal
organizations in the
world.
- The U.S.
Department of
Justice reports that
more marijuana is
being trafficked by
drug cartels along
our southern border
than all drugs
combined, and
according to
INTERPOL, these
organizations are
using the profits
from the unregulated
marijuana market to
expand other illicit
drug markets:
"Criminal
organizations in
Mexico are
involved in the
movement of
multiple drugs,
including
marijuana,
cocaine, heroin
and
methamphetamine.
Information from
multiple law
enforcement
sources
indicates
Mexican criminal
organizations
use the revenue
from marijuana
trafficking to
fund other
drug-smuggling
ventures."
Reduce criminality
among youth and exposure
to more harmful licit
and illicit substances.
- A 1982 National
Research Council
report stated that
the "prohibition of
the supply of
marijuana increases
access to and use of
other illegal drugs
through the creation
of an illegal
marketing system for
all drugs" and
"[teenage] marijuana
sellers may become
socialized into
other illegal
activities."
- Despite
marijuana
prohibition
worsening problems
with more harmful
illicit substances,
alcohol remains
the top drug problem
in the United
States and around
the world. With every objective study on alcohol and marijuana
showing that alcohol
is a much more
harmful substance than
marijuana both for the user and
for society, there
is increasing public
health and safety concern that our laws prohibiting the marijuana market are sending
the harmful message to the public that
it is more acceptable
to use alcohol.
Click here to read the facts on alcohol and marijuana.
Assist parent
and community efforts in
reducing underage access
to marijuana.
High school
students
consistently report
having easier access
to marijuana than to
alcohol, and
according to the
federal government
marijuana is
“universally
available” to them.
By making marijuana
legal for adults and
treating it like
alcohol, it will
take it out of the
black market (where
it is unregulated
and available to
young people) and
put it in a legal
market (where it is
controlled and only
available to adults
with valid ID). Since young people
will undoubtedly
continue to be
curious about
marijuana and
alcohol, we must
educate them about
their relative harms
in an open and
honest manner.
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