Recently, Gallup released a report showing that Americans are more optimistic about progress on illegal drugs in the United States. Many left-leaning media outlets and social media commentators misrepresented this finding, claiming it reflected growing support for drug legalization. That is a false framing. The Pew research in question measured sentiment, not policy preference. It indicates that more Americans believe a solution to the drug problem might eventually be found, it does not mean they want drugs legalized.
In reality, support for legalized marijuana, and by extension, for the legalization of other drugs, is declining. The reason is simple: the promised benefits of legalization have not materialized. Of the ten most commonly anticipated benefits cited by supporters of drug legalization, only one has been achieved. The first of these is personal freedom and liberty, the idea that adults should be able to choose whether or not to use drugs. By definition, this goal has been realized in states where marijuana is legal.
However, the remaining nine benefits have failed to appear: majority public support, increased tax revenue, elimination of the black market, reduced prison overcrowding and criminal justice reform, reduced racial disparities in enforcement, job creation and economic growth, medical benefits, safer regulated products, and reduction in opioid deaths.
The claim that drug legalization reflects majority public support, is less a goal and more an explanation for why legalization measures have passed in many states. However, as noted above, this support is now waning. If the media would overcome their left-leaning liberal bias and report the truth, people could better inform themselves, and support for legalization would likely decline even further.
The medical benefits of marijuana legalization remain unproven and largely unquantified. While doctors have identified legitimate medical uses, there is no evidence that legalized recreational marijuana has improved health outcomes. Penicillin and insulin are life-saving drugs, yet the government does not allow patients to self-diagnose or self-prescribe them, the same logic should apply to marijuana. Society doesn’t allow citizens to write their own prescriptions, and many medical marijuana cards are issued to individuals seeking recreational use under a false medical pretext.
The economics of marijuana legalization have fallen far short of projections. Job creation has been extremely modest, with positions in the marijuana industry representing only a small fraction of total employment growth and an even smaller share of overall jobs.
The increased-revenue claim is technically true in the narrow sense that states collect more tax on legal marijuana than on illegal marijuana; however, the studies that tout success cite projected gross revenue rather than net revenue, which is negative in most states.
A Colorado Christian University/Centennial Institute analysis found that for every dollar gained in marijuana tax revenue, Coloradans spent approximately $4.50 mitigating the effects of legalization, a 4.5 to 1 cost-to-revenue ratio driven largely by healthcare burdens and education-related impacts such as higher dropout rates. Studies show that while states that legalize marijuana experience modest increases in tax revenue, those gains are overshadowed by sharp social costs.
States such as Colorado, Oregon, California, and Washington have all seen significant rises in homelessness, substance use disorders, and arrests in the years following legalization. A report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found that after marijuana was legalized, substance use disorders increased by 17 percent, chronic homelessness rose by 35 percent, and arrests climbed by 13 percent.
The direct, measurable costs are substantial. Over the past decade in Colorado, marijuana-related hospitalizations, emergency room visits, poison control calls, DUIs, and fatal crashes involving drivers who tested positive for cannabinoids have all increased. Accidental child exposure to marijuana, as well as injuries to children who have ingested marijuana, have also risen dramatically. Beyond healthcare and law enforcement costs, there are additional but harder-to-measure economic losses stemming from reduced labor force participation and lower overall productivity.
The claim that legalizing marijuana would reduce prison overcrowding has completely failed. While arrests for marijuana and other drugs have declined, this reflects reduced enforcement rather than a decrease in trafficking, sales, or use. Overdose deaths have skyrocketed, proving that enforcement has weakened while the underlying crisis has intensified. Moreover, overdose deaths represent only a small fraction of total overdoses, which now occur several times more often. Many lives are being saved by the widespread use of Narcan, masking the true scale of the problem.
Marijuana-impaired driving has also increased significantly in states that legalized marijuana. the share of DUIs involving marijuana, Traffic fatalities involving drivers who tested positive for cannabinoids increased. Overall Car crashes have also increased in states that legalized marijuana.
These trends also undermine several other major arguments for legalization. The black market has not been eliminated because legal marijuana remains more expensive than illicit marijuana, and illegal sales continue. The promise of safer, regulated products has also proven false. While legally produced marijuana may be cleaner, the persistence of the black market means many users still obtain unregulated and unsafe drugs. Overdose deaths and incidents involving laced or fentanyl-contaminated substances have risen sharply, proving that legalization has failed to deliver the safety, reform, and stability its advocates promised.
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