I recently had the delight of reading a very liberal post by blogger Raymund on his site What the Hell is Texas Doing? about the potential benefits of Texas adopting Marijuana as a legal substance. The post goes into great detail about the financial perks Texas stands to gain from legalizing the plant, and also addresses many of the common, misguided concerns the public has about pot. While Marijuana is a drug (there's no getting around that), the risk of abuse or addiction is significantly less than that of America's favorite past time- alcohol. So why is it illegal? I believe that the fear of a demotivated society is a poor justification of such close-minded actions, especially since we have had the living proof of Colorado that legalizing marijuana will not ruin a society. In fact, Colorado has not only seen a great reduction in the amount of substance-related crimes, but also an increase in tax revenue and a flood of new available jobs.
I truly believe that, if legalized, marijuana will have a positive affect on Texas as well, both ushering in a new era of liberal thinking to challenge the old ways, as well as giving our state a large sum of money to put towards helping people, rather than arresting them. The longer this prejudice against "reefer" continues, the more people have their lives ruined and the more our state finances get tied up in everything but what should be our government's priorities- health, education, and opportunities. The time for this change is now, and Texas is wasting precious time. Other states will soon grab at this chance of betterment and we will be left with nothing. It's unfortunate to think that the financial growth of other states will be what really changes the mind of Texans, but if money is what it takes for change, so be it.
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