Wisconsin residents will vote in a primary election on Tuesday, April 7 to pick the presidential candidates for November's election. Despite hosting the Democratic National Convention, Wisconsin remains one of just a few states without a legal marijuana programmed, even for medical purposes, despite the fact that most Democratic candidates promised legal marijuana for everybody in the election.
Ahead of the election, people should remember a few essential pro-legalization points. Legalization of marijuana would:
Bring in tax revenue
This is the most prevalent and first argument in support of legalization. States can fund public services and improve the quality of life for a large number of people by taxing cannabis goods. The excise tax on marijuana goods brought in more than $314 million in Washington alone in 2017. Colorado's state government made $302 million in 2019 from legal cannabis taxes, licenses, and fees; the state has made a total of $1.2 billion since the material was legalized in 2014.
Save taxpayer money
After marijuana was legalized in California, the number of arrests dropped dramatically. The total number of arrests fell from 1.2 million in 2013 to 1.09 million in 2018, with drug-related felony arrests falling from 137,000 to 28,000, or from 31% to 9.4% of all felony arrests.
The state might have saved up to $7.6 million on arrests alone if it had avoided many of the 17,392 arrests for marijuana possession that occurred in Wisconsin in 2018. Each arrest costs taxpayers roughly $439. Aside from arrests, persons who enter the legal system cost taxpayers a lot of money since they have to pay for courts, judges, prosecutors, and jail sentences.
Restore justice
While putting the cost of legalization in monetary terms makes for a persuasive case, the human cost of the War on Drugs is the most important factor to consider. People are far less likely to get work, rent a home, use government services, or participate in society when they are arrested and punished for drug offences that are legal across state boundaries. This is especially true in Milwaukee, one of the most segregated areas in the country, where black residents are significantly more likely to be harmed by cannabis prohibition.
Every demographic group smokes marijuana at nearly the same rate, regardless of race. Despite this, cannabis prohibition has a disproportionately negative impact on communities of color across the country. According to the Milwaukee Police Department's data, between 2012 and 2015, 72 percent of persons arrested for small-scale marijuana possession were black, while only 12 percent were white. According to the census, less than 28% of Milwaukee County's population identifies as black.
Scrubbing records clean would relieve countless Americans of the burden of a previous arrest, following the lead of states like Illinois and California, which focus on expunging the records of persons with prior marijuana-related convictions. In the last four decades, approximately 500,000 people in Wisconsin have been arrested on marijuana charges, the vast majority of whom were detained for simple possession. If marijuana is legalized, half a million Wisconsin residents could reclaim their ability to contribute fully to society.
