Former US Senator Tom Daschle is suggesting that cannabis legalization is a viable solution to the ailing American economy. Daschle believes that America’s next president will grapple with a series of challenges biggest among them is an economy teetering on the brink of collapse and a repulsive social divide.
Progress from unexpected places
The former South Dakota lawmaker, who served in the government for almost three decades, said there is no silver bullet to magically solve all of the problems American economy is currently witnessing. However, he hinted that progress sometimes comes from unexpected places and that states usually discover the future before the federal government.
The former Senator opined that while legalizing cannabis can’t cure all that ails America, it can help facilitate progress on several critical issues.
First, legal cannabis will help create new businesses and new jobs and generate additional tax revenues. It’s already a $16 billion-dollar market where it is legal, with the total market worth an estimated $75 billion. We’re well on the path to de facto legalization on a state level; in fact, many states deemed access to cannabis to be an essential service at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The next president can take us the rest of the way, Daschle wrote.
Daschle also added that marijuana criminalization has resulted in more social ills than it solved. On the same thread, the war on drugs, however well-intentioned, has destroyed more lives than it could save. He called on America’s next president to fully legalize cannabis, saying that it offers potential that legalization can help explore.
More social ills, more lives destroyed
Speaking about cannabis criminalization, Daschle who served twice as both majority and minority leader, stated more social ills and even destroyed more lives than it could have saved.
Without access to mainstream banking, the thriving illicit cannabis market is more susceptible to organized crime and poses a serious threat to public safety…Local law enforcement has been transformed into a paramilitary force focused on arresting low-level users, with overwhelming racial disparity in possession arrests skewed toward people of colour, Daschle wrote.
Concluding his remarks, Daschle who is also the founder and CEO of the Daschle Group said there’s a need for the reevaluation of the cannabis regulatory frameworks, even as America embarks on the recovery process from the Coronavirus pandemic. He asserted that now more than ever, states need new businesses, new jobs, and additional tax revenues. “They need the next president to legalize cannabis, and the sooner, the better.”
