If elected to the House of Representatives presenting a bill to decriminalize marijuana and make it available for medical use will be my top priority while in office. The problem with marijuana is that we lack all the benefits of allowing the plant to be sold legally. The free market has already decided marijuana will be a mainstay in America yet, we lack the tax revenue this could provide, we don’t allow medical benefits to be received unless you live in a state that has already passed a medical bill, and we send a countless number of people to jail for using a substance much of the country has decided should be legal. According to the ACLU 52% of all drug arrests in 2010 were for marijuana, also according to their study states spend $3,613,969,972 enforcing marijuana laws each year (Source: ACLU, 4/23/17).…show more content… Business Insider also weighed in on the medical benefits of marijuana stating it could be used for a number of medical conditions including Glaucoma, epileptic seizures, Dravet’s syndrome, and many other medical conditions (Source: Business Insider, 4/23/17). I will propose a bill that will decriminalize marijuana on a national level, remove it from schedule one of the controlled substances act to allow marijuana to be used in all states for medical purposes and return power to the states by allowing them to decide how or if they will allow recreational sales of marijuana with no fear of national interference. The bill will include a 10% national tax on all sales of marijuana. This tax will be used to increase the budget for education and increase salaries for teachers and other administrative
