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Hey everyone. I need help on answering this question: How will health care access, cost, and quality be affected by the passage or defeat of a bill legalizing marijuana. The bill is AB 390, but i just need some answers on the affect of health care by legalizing marijuana or not. I’ve done some research but I need a little more. Thanks.

Answers (2):

Answer 1:

If marijuana was made legal and the government produced and taxed it, the revenue could cover a huge portion of the health care budget. The government could mass produce many different types of weed and at such a low cost because the ‘danger’ aspect would be non-existent; then then they could tax it heavily and make it cost the same it does now plus make billions a year that could be used to support health care. Not only that but it would save the DEA and many police forces and other government agencies billions just in time spent and effort wasted arresting harmless weed smokers. In New York city in 2008 it cost them 90 million dollars to arrest and detain people possessing minor amounts of weed and I can think of many better uses for that kind of money, one of them being health care.

There wouldn’t be more people using if it was made illegal because if people want to smoke weed they are going to do so anyways, but I major difference could be that less young people would smoke it because if it was legal it would be a less ‘rebellious’ drug.

Instead the USA has treated marijuana the same way they treat most things; by declaring war on it, hence the War on Drugs.

Answer 2:

It’ll probably have absolutely no effect. Marijuana is so cheap anyways, and easy enough to grow at home (certainly easier than homebrewing beer), so there’s not going to be any significant tax dollars made from legalizing and taxing it. And it’s so safe – no one ever goes to an emergency room with a marijuana overdose, so the effect of marijuana on the health care system is already minimal. Having better quality weed won’t change a thing except make it a bit more convenient for potheads like me to get high.

Now if heroin or cocaine were legalized, that could potentially help out the health care system a lot. These drugs are extremely dangerous in overdose, and street drug purity is unknown so you might OD even if you are extremely careful and weigh out your drugs. The cost of reviving OD victims is extremely high. Also unlike weed, these drugs are highly addictive and EXPENSIVE – people give up everything including food to get more heroin, so of course they get sick and go to the hospital again and again. Having legal and clean heroin at a low regulated price rather than a black market monopolized price would alleviate many problems, both for the user and for the health care system. Too bad the government is freaking idiotic.