Amendment 64

While everyone was wrapped up in the presidential election, Colorado and Washington were celebrating their newly passed amendment. Amendment 64 is the recreational use of Marijuana. Colorado and Washington both passed the amendment while Oregon denied it. Although I agree that the recreational use of marijuana should be legalized, I'm somewhat leery on the subject. I believe it has the power to help our economy, which is the driving force behind my support. Not only will it create more jobs and is estimated to be a $36 billioin dollar industry, it would save the country money on sending people with marijuana related charges to jail. Sending these people to prison costs the U.S an estimate of $1 billion annually. On the other hand, I think this should be approched with caution due to immaturity of many people in this country. I wish there were a better method of measuring maturity levels because age doesn't necessarily project that. But even though I'm not confident in the fact that people can deal with marijuana legalization maturely, the benefit is well worth it. The same can be said about alcohol. There are those that "drink responsibly" and those that take advantage of it. Therefore I think this is something that needs to be dealt with carefully but still, something worth dealing with.