States like Colorado and Washington who have legalized medical cannabis for recreational use do not have very strict rules on the obtaining and the use of cannabis. Instead these states have regulations on age to use cannabis, driving safety, amount of cannabis obtained at a time and cultivation of the plant. Although recreational use is legal, medical cannabis is still prevalent in the states as the regulations for medical cannabis is different from that of the use recreational. As a patient that has obtained a medical cannabis identification card, a person can hold up to two ounces of usable cannabis and six plants at a time. For recreational use, anyone over the age of 21 can legally purchase cannabis. A person who is purchasing cannabis without a medical cannabis identification card can purchase up to an ounce of usable cannabis and can grow up to 6 plants at a time ("23 Legal Medical Marijuana States and DC …show more content…
Just like tobacco and alcohol that states have placed a percentage of tax on, cannabis has been treated the same way in hope of large amounts of money from tax obtained by the state. In the first year of cannabis sales in Colorado, the state received around 50 million dollars in tax money coming just from the sale of cannabis, and the tax paid from dispensaries in order to grow the plant. The plan for the money received in taxes for the beginning of the cannabis era, the state wanted to fund schooling. After a year has gone by around 8 million dollars has been funded to programs for funding schooling, youth programs for drug awareness and obesity. Other factors that have been studies since the legalization of recreational cannabis in Colorado are crime rates and unemployment which both have seen productive growth. As crime rates have went down tremendously since legalization and the state is now at the lowest unemployment rate in years ("Marijuana Legalization in Colorado: One-Year Status