What Are the Causes and Effects of the Increase in Marijuana Usage in the United States?

Question by Arnob: What are the causes and effects of the increase in marijuana usage in the United States?
This is for a college research paper, I need some causes and effects of the increase in marijuana usage because I have run out of ideas.

Best answer:

Answer by Redstorm
Not to sure about causes, but the effects are pretty major.

In my opinion, the biggest problem with buying marijuana is that it supports (though indirectly) the drug cartels in Mexico (if it came from Mexican drug cartels, which much of it does)

Answer by Andrew
causes:
-relaxed laws
-the internet (in that people are now aware of how harmless it is as compared to before the internet existed)

effects:
-more arrests
-increased revenues for Prison Building Companies
-increased revenues for the Cartel
-increased revenues for all companies related to imprisoning people
-decrease in Cocaine/Heroin use (data from Netherlands/Portugal and Los Angeles have shown strong correlation, wish I could find my LA source. Neth/Por is googleable, just use “8 times” and/or “9 times” in the same sentence or maybe even 80% and 90%. for LA try using something along the lines of “70% decrease in hospital visits for cocaine.” hospital visits per x people is how they gauge drug use in the world)
-clogging of our Justice System
-more tax dollars allocated towards MJ users ($ 43,000/yr to house an inmate; study from South Carolina I believe if you need more info for the Google Bot to refine your search)

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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