What Happens When You Legalise Cannabis?
The Inquiry
BBC
4.6 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2017
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 2014 marijuana was legalised for recreational use in Colorado and Washington states in the US. Oregon, Alaska, California, Nevada and Massachusetts have all followed. These votes were the result of fierce campaigns. Activists argued that changing the law would eliminate the black market in marijuana; creating a legitimate, taxable industry and allowing the police to focus on more serious crime. Opponents feared more people would become cannabis addicts and predicted an uptick in health problems and robberies. So – three years in – what happened?
Presenter: Ruth Alexander Producers: Kate Lamble and Phoebe Keane
(Photo: Jars full of medical marijuana are seen at Sunset Junction medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
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| 0:35.4 | Sounds. |
| 0:36.4 | Thanks for downloading the inquiry. |
| 0:41.4 | It's 10 to 8 on the morning of New Year's Day 2014. In Denver, Colorado, it's snowing lightly. |
| 0:49.0 | But despite the cold weather, hundreds of people are queuing in the streets. |
| 0:54.4 | Some of them have slept in their cars overnight, |
| 0:57.0 | having driven thousands of miles across the US to be here. |
| 1:00.7 | Their faces are painted green, and they're waiting for the clock to strike eight |
| 1:05.8 | Amid a media scrum a man in his 30s, Sean Atseriti, makes the US's very first legal purchase |
| 1:18.8 | of cannabis for recreational use. |
| 1:21.1 | Sean, your total is $59.74. |
| 1:24.0 | Thank you very, very much. |
| 1:27.0 | You can hold the money as well. |
| 1:30.0 | Cannabis, marijuana, Cannabis marijuana weed pot smoke dope. |
| 1:37.0 | Whatever you want to call it, this was the moment the drug became legal in Colorado. |
| 1:43.2 | We got some legal weed. |
| 1:45.0 | It was a moment that seemed like it would change everything. |
... |
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