North Carolina, USA — There is a new move to legalize marijuana in North Carolina. A bill has been introduced in the state capitol to legalize the sale and regulation of the drug, which is already legal in 21 states.
The bill’s proponents said legalizing marijuana would open the doors to a multi-billion dollar industry, reinvesting millions of dollars in tax revenue back into North Carolina, improving schools, health care, transportation, and more. said it can support other regional services in
“From time immemorial to the 1930s, people smoked cannabis, and it was legal in nature.” Representative Kelly Alexander Said. “What we are trying to do now is restore that legality.”
Alexander is one of the sponsors House Bill 626It aims to legalize and regulate the sale, possession and use of cannabis in North Carolina.
“This is not the eighteenth century,” he continued. “There is no need to put the scarlet letter on people for using naturally occurring products that more and more people see as providing medical or personal benefits.”
Alexander said keeping cannabis illegal disproportionately affects people of color who are more likely to be arrested for possession.
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Proponents say legalizing marijuana essentially saves state money and resources that some states use to arrest, prosecute, and imprison people for using legal products. .
“It is time for citizens who want to indulge in cannabis use to do so without fear of stigma or arrest,” Alexander said.
Paul Armentano is normal, the National Organization for Marijuana Law Reform. He agrees with those feelings.
“It makes no sense to use limited prosecutorial resources to target, prosecute and imprison individuals for possession and use of substances that are objectively safer than alcohol and tobacco,” Armentano said. .
He added that the cannabis industry currently supports about 450,000 full-time jobs.
“In fact, there are twice as many people currently working full-time in the state-licensed cannabis industry as there are dentists in the United States,” Armentano said.
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The industry also brings in big bucks in states where it’s legal.
For example, in Colorado, the first state to legalize cannabis, marijuana tax revenue $2.4 billion since 2014.
Colorado marijuana spending by destination is shown below.
Credit: Deputy Press Secretary
Note: The graph above reflects the Governor’s budget request for 2023-24 on November 1, 2022. As of the Nov. 1 budget request, total projected marijuana revenues for 2023-24 were estimated at $365 million. This chart excludes $38 million in marijuana earnings that went to the General Fund. “Other” in the graph includes the following sectors: Health Policy and Funding (0.5%), Governor’s Office (0.3%), Revenue (0.3%), Early Childhood (0.3%), and Transportation (0.3%). ), Labor and Employment (0.2%), and Regulatory Bodies (0.1%). For more details, see his November 1st budget proposal here.
The money will be used for health care, law enforcement, and the renewal and replacement of deteriorating public schools.
“The state is now generating an estimated $12 billion in new tax revenue by raising these markets from underground to above ground, making them transparent and legally regulated,” Armentano said.
these are efforts Prime Sunshine CBD Founder and CEO Ellen Thatcher agrees.
“It’s not necessarily marijuana that people are smoking,” Tacher explained. “It’s the cannabinoids and all the parts…the substances that are in that plant that are useful to the human body as a whole.”
Her business has been in Charlotte for nearly a decade, selling a variety of state-legal CBD products.
“This opens up access for people who suffer from fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, migraines, sleep disorders, anxiety and depression,” says Tacher. “Everything they need from our product. can get help, but the THC from the marijuana plant can be very helpful.
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Armentano said the legalization of marijuana would allow us to control a safer product for consumers.
“Legalization will not create consumer demand for cannabis, or even create a marijuana market,” Armentano said. The question is, who do you want to control that market? ”
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