NC medical marijuana legalization creates benefits for all

Medical marijuana can offer a number of benefits to individuals suffering from an array of physical and mental illnesses, addiction and cancer.

Legalization of the drug can also create billions of dollars in tax revenue, improving public education, infrastructure and health care. These funds often spill over into city, town and county budgets in cannabis-legal states.

According to the Marijuana Policy Project, in cannabis-legal states, over $3.7 million in tax revenue was generated by adult-use cannabis sales in 2021.

Yet cannabis often carries a stigma that prevents it from passing state legislation, such as when North Carolina’s Rules, Calendar and Operation House Committee stopped the NC Compassionate Care Act in 2022.

We, the editorial staff of The East Carolinian, believe passing medical marijuana legislation at the state level would not only benefit those in need of the drug’s medicinal benefits, but millions of North Carolinians through its potential economic impact.

In fact, according to a SurveyUSA poll released by WRAL in 2022, 72% percent of North Carolina voters feel that medical marijuana should be legalized at the state level.

The opinion was common across party lines, as 64% of Republican, 75% of Democrat and 78% of Unaffiliated voters felt as though medical marijuana should be made legal.

While the majority of those opposed to medical marijuana legalization view cannabis as a gateway drug, the drug has been proven to have therapeutic effects on anxiety, posing benefits for those suffering from mental illnesses like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction from drugs such as opioids.

Though medical marijuana may carry a negative stigma leftover from decades of misconceptions, the responsible and legal growth, sale and consumption of cannabis could provide benefits for not just a handful of North Carolinians, but for all of the state.