I am super fortunate to live in a state that is full of wonderful people with strong values. The people I was with and I have been at the forefront of numerous positive social swings in this great country, especially before the movements absorbed into adjacent areas. For instance, our modern city chose to implement a marijuana decriminalization program in the early 1980s. They made it a $5 fine whenever you were caught with petty amounts of cannabis, and the ticket was mailed to the offender’s residence. This wasn’t the first instance of a city-wide decriminalization effort that was happening in the US, but it became the most notorious as critics worked hard to pin a wave of crime in the whole city on that law which had very little effect among public opinion. In reality, the law remained and only saw an increase to $25 way back in 1990 when the fines were reviewed by the city. This state has both medical marijuana and recreational marijuana at this point. Even though medical marijuana patients pay lower prices at weed stores by avoiding state and city taxes, they also have to pay money to the state every single year to keep their card. There is a crucial trade off, but anyone else is able to walk into a weed store and purchase products as long as they’re over the age of 21. In our state the taxes aren’t too insane yet, but some areas in CA have joined taxes of over 26% on all recreational marijuana sales. A couple of states also tax medical marijuana purchases as well, with CA being a single example. It makes me particularly proud to be residing in our modern state knowing that marijuana would only get more expensive if I moved out west.