A fact-checked debate about legal weed

2 opposing perspectives and 6 true facts about cannabis legalization. Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Chapters: 00:00 Introduction to format 1:04 Fact #1: Public opinion 2:11 Will's Introduction 2:41 Fact #2: Road safety 4:03 Paul's Introduction 4:24 Fact #3: Marijuana arrests 5:41 Fact #4: Cannabis business owners 7:14 Fact #5: Illicit market 9:15 Fact #6: Corporate interest 10:10 Closing statements There are few places in the world where you can walk into a licensed shop and buy marijuana for recreational use. Uruguay is one (sold in pharmacies). Canada is another. They’re joined by 21 US states, representing 48 percent of the American population, up from zero states in 2013. That means that in Idaho, people caught growing or selling weed face mandatory jail time and tens of thousands of dollars in fines while their counterparts next door in Washington can enroll in a state-funded mentor-ship program for cannabis business planning and development. And states like Washington are violating both US federal law which prohibits any use of marijuana, and also international law, which prohibits non-medical uses. That’s messy. But it reflects that although large majorities agree that the criminalization of cannabis use was a mistake, there’s less consensus about how exactly to move forward. Will Jones III, the Director of Community Engagement & Outreach at Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), maintains that the commercialization of weed would lead to more harm than good. He prefers decriminalization instead, which removes criminal penalties, treating marijuana possession more like a traffic ticket. (Six US states have decriminalized recreational cannabis without legalizing.) However, SAM prioritizes fighting legalization and reducing drug use over promoting decriminalization. SAM co-drafted the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act which makes it easier to study marijuana and develop marijuana-derived drugs but without descheduling marijuana as a schedule I illicit substance. President Biden signed it into law in December of 2022. Paul Armentano, the Deputy Director of NORML, has spent decades advocating…