Wiz Khalifa Keeps Marijuana Debate Front and Center

Over the past few years, the medical marijuana debate has rapidly moved from a basic political issue to one of economics. The debate over the legalization of the substance is controversial. Supporters suggest that marijuana should be legalized because the government could earn money from taxes on its sale and because of its value to medicine.

In San Diego, there will soon be a new Medical Marijuana Ballot Initiative that’s sponsored by the California Cannabis Coalition, the “Citizens for Safe Access Ordinance” (“CSAO”). As it stands, if it obtains enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, the citizens of San Diego will have the opportunity to do what the city has been unable to accomplish for over a year, enact reasonable regulations for the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana to qualifying patients in San Diego. Medical cannabis centers will be allowed in most commercial and industrial zones as long as they’re not within 600 feet of schools, playgrounds, libraries, or day care centers, and within 500 feet of residential rehabilitation facilities or other cannabis centers or located in residential buildings.

In Oregon, the campaign for Measure 74 has obtained support to legitimize medical marijuana as medicine. Since November, at least six states including Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania had recent legislation or ballot measures to legalize medical marijuana. Iowa, Arizona, Delaware, Alabama, Kansas and Maryland also put the question to a vote, but it did not pass. The most publicized of states regarding the legalization of Marijuana via the ballot was California. California voters killed Proposition 19, which would have legalized recreational marijuana. Proponents of the bill say they will mount another legalization campaign in 2012.

Opponents advocate that such measures are just “political cover” for legislation that would further regulate and decriminalize marijuana. They also assert that marijuana is the most commonly abused illegal drug in the U.S. and that the danger is in the abuse of the drug singularly, comparing it's impact to that of another legal drug, alcohol.

Proponents argue that alcohol sales amounts to states collecting an estimated $14.5 billion in tax revenue with tobacco adding $25 billion in collected in taxes.

The debate regarding the re-legalization of marijuana will continue and hip-hop artists like Wiz Khalifa may be at the center of the debate.

By Torrance Stephens