Perhaps more people know of marijuana because of the stigma surrounding it and its users. But that was then. Now, as more and more people are learning about the benefits that marijuana can provide, its popularity as medical substance has increased. This time, an increasing number of people are starting to ask for its use to be legalized not just in the medical aspect, but also for recreational purposes. Indeed, studies have shown a downward trend of the percentage of people who voted against the legalization of marijuana with an inversely upward trend of those who voted for it to be legalized. It’s still an ongoing debate, but what does legalizing marijuana entail?

State Law vs. Federal Law

To put it simply, states can choose how they want to address marijuana. Having a law that prohibits the use of marijuana is not allowed as it can be considered as coercion, which goes against the 10th Amendment. Instead, states have the option to set up marijuana-related laws, or have none at all, and it varies from one state to another. Legalization of marijuana use on the state level means that you can’t get ticketed, arrested, or convicted just for using marijuana so long as you follow the state laws governing the age, area, and amount of consumption of this substance.

Federal law is a different story, though. Under federal law, marijuana is treated like all other controlled substances like heroin and cocaine. It’s viewed as having no medical value, and highly addictive at that, hence, its possession, sale, production, and use are considered illegal and can come with criminal liabilities. Between state law and federal law, it’s the latter that wins. So legalizing marijuana entails more than just a state passing its approval on its use within their states boundaries and state laws.

International Treaties

Lastly, there are existing international conventions that hover over the United States government’s stand on legalizing marijuana. The United States agreed to such a convention which requires it to limit the use of marijuana due to its potential of being dependence-producing.

Public Support

A quick look at recent surveys shows that public support for the nationwide legalization of marijuana has been increasing. In fact, poll results show that more than half the country voted in favor of marijuana legalization. Additionally, there have been proposals submitted by several members of Congress calling to legalizing marijuana nationwide. Although such proposals have been raised before to no success so there’s no assurance that the laws prohibiting marijuana will be reformed any time soon.

Employment Consideration

There is also the issue with employment when it comes to talks on legalizing marijuana. Different types of companies are being required to have their employees under drug tests, and compliance could earn these companies additional benefits. But more than just the benefits, these tests which involve blood collection and possibly marijuana drug test kits are conducted to weed out those who use prohibited or controlled substances. By doing so, they can be recommended to undergo intervention, or if found out during the job application process, are not hired at all. This is a safety measure, intended to keep the company’s employees, the community, and the company itself safe from the negative effects that marijuana might bring about. Legalizing marijuana actually goes against that, since legalizing its use both medically and for recreational purposes won’t discourage people from using cannabis.

For marijuana to be completely legalized in the United States, both the state governments and federal government would have to make certain necessary changes. The thing to remember, though, is that while state governments can change or completely repeal their own marijuana laws, it still won’t change the federal law that concerns marijuana. Nonetheless, if this is going to pass through the law and have it legalized, there’ll be no more drug testing or criminal issues under the use of marijuana.