Legalization of marijuana

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Benefits That Will Be Realized When the States Legalize the Use of Marijuana
Introduction
The debate surrounding the need to legalize marijuana rages on with both the people who oppose and proponents giving strong valid reasons for the legalization or not of the drug. Many researchers have developed studies that give inquest into the state of the drug, on whether it can be legalized or criminalized. This paper aims to further the research on the knowledge about the possible impacts, and benefits that legalizing marijuana would cause in the society, the economy and in the medical views.
Background of the Study
The need to legalize marijuana remains a core value to most organizations and people in the society. Marijuana use has remained largely illegal, and so people are not allowed to possess or use it without the express written doctor’s directions that would entail only the medical usages. In the past decade, more people have seen the need to have the drug legalized following the many reasons and possible benefits that may arise from such initiatives.
The proponents of the legalization give variable reasons including its medical value in alleviating pains from AIDs, Epilepsy, and nausea from chemotherapy processes (Johnson 5-6). Moreover, Marijuana is also believed to create a greater economic impact when it is formally controlled and regulated in use by the state as a legal drug than when considered the illegal drug. As such, economists have been pushing for its legalization to help the government earn tax from its trade, as it has done with tobacco and alcohol.

Objectives of the Study
General Objectives
The study will aim to identify the benefits realizable when the States legalize the use of marijuana
Specific Objective
To determine the medical values realizable after the legalization of marijuana.
To identify the social benefits of legalizing marijuana.
To determine the value of the economic contribution of legalized marijuana.
Research Questions
What would be the medical values realizable after the legalization of marijuana?
What are the possible social benefits of legalizing marijuana?
What are the values of the economic contribution of legalized marijuana?
Research Hypotheses
H1 Marijuana has positive medical values realizable when the drug is legalized.
H1 Marijuana has social benefits when legalized.
H1 Marijuana has high economic values when legalized.
Justification of the Study
The use of marijuana despite its illegal status has been high in the society. This has caused the government to lose out a lot of cash in taxes that would provide care to the marijuana victims. As things are, more people continue to suffer due to the black market trading of marijuana, yet the government cannot find a way for the trade in drug to pay for its consequences.
Literature Review
Many people who oppose the use of marijuana feel that like the big tobacco, the drug will ruin lives of many Americans and the world over. Moreover, they also believe that when the drug is legalized, its usage will increase, thus creating a greater damage on the lives of the people. One fact that therefore remains is that marijuana is harmful to everybody in the society, but especially to the young adults, adolescents, and children (Gundersen 34-8).
However, those people who propose the use of the drug have different views, as they see the legalization of the drug as the introduction of control and management of its usage. They believe that though tobacco and alcohol are also more harmful, they have significantly been put under control in many states, and so cannot be sold to underage people. In the same way, legalizing marijuana would be important if the state would like to introduce controls regarding usage, taxes, and production units. They believe that the continued illegalization of the drug does more harm than good in the society (Gundersen 34-8).
According to FBI report of 2012, there were 658,000 arrests made on people found to possess the drug. On the same year, a combined total of 256, 000 arrests related to cocaine and heroin were also made. This shows that more effort is wasted into the control of illegal trade in marijuana. Notably, up to 30, 000 Americans who had no other crimes apart from possessing marijuana were arrested in the year 2012. These are people who are sent into the jail system, living off the state coffers instead of letting them carry out productive economic activities for the benefit of the society (Gruber 1-2). Continued illegalization of the drug also fuels racism as the blacks are 3.7% times likely to be arrested when found in possession of the drug compared to the whites. It is high time the drug is possibly legalized to increase the benefits possible from its trade.
Research Methods
The research will deploy a purposive sampling approach. This will be useful in creating research samples that are not probabilistic because the target population is large enough to carry out any other type of sampling. The research target respondents are also secretive enough to delve any meaningful information. Thus purposive sampling would be most appropriate for this kind of research study.

References
BIBLIOGRAPHY l 1033 Gruber, S. (2016). Should Marijuana Be Legal? Worcester Business Journal, 1-2.
Gundersen, D. C. (2015). The Legalization of Marijuana: Implications for Regulation and Practice. Journal of Nursing and Regulation, 34–38.
Johnson, L. (2012). Legalizing Marijuana (Medical and Recreational) In The Limelight. American Journal of International Law, 1-6.