Legalize it. Tax it. Regulate it.

At many Georgia vape shops and gas stations, you will encounter some variation or form of cannabis available — a new attempt to skirt the laws, a confusing combination of numbers and letters labeled Delta 8, 9, 10, 11 and so on. These products are just genetically modified cannabis with a similar effect, derivatives that are often poorly regulated.

Plenty of Georgians also purchase and consume standard marijuana illegally. Across the state, legal enforcement varies greatly: Cities like Atlanta have decriminalized marijuana, with violators facing a small fine, while other jurisdictions still treat marijuana possession as worthy of incarceration.

Georgians are smoking marijuana and gambling — that should come as no surprise. Republicans controlling the General Assembly have enacted a policy of prohibition on marijuana and gambling, i.e., it is forbidden by law.

Yet, this stance has failed. Individuals are widely partaking in these acts criminalized by Republicans.

Georgia’s failure to legalize marijuana and different forms of gambling has left it unable to regulate and manage these existing industries and ensure product safety. Most importantly, it has left Georgia unable to impose taxes, revenue that could be used to invest in education and teach kids to not do drugs or gamble.

If Georgia legalized, regulated and taxed sports betting and marijuana, the state could generate immense revenues to give Georgia students one of the best educations in the country. New York taxes gambling revenues at a rate of 51%, Colorado taxes cannabis sales at 15% and Washington at a whopping 37%. In 2024, New York reaped more than $1 billion from gambling revenue, and Colorado’s revenue from marijuana legalization is approaching $3 billion.

Georgians are already gambling online with the aid of VPNs and have long been smoking marijuana, whether it be bought at a vape store, online or illegally. Republicans under the Gold Dome are not interested in legalizing marijuana any time soon. Although they have allowed for improvements and expansions to the state’s limited medical marijuana program, Republican leadership remains staunchly opposed to recreational marijuana.

The criminalization of marijuana is a waste of taxpayer resources, incarcerating Georgians for possession of a plant that our state has deemed to have medical benefits. Georgia law enforcement officials have better things to do than arrest someone for the possession of marijuana.

Marijuana is far less dangerous than alcohol and should be treated similarly. Legalizing marijuana would help put dealers and criminal enterprises across the state out of business while putting money into state coffers, creating new businesses and jobs and greatly benefiting our farmers.

Marijuana and gambling are so easily accessible that Georgia must recognize that these industries being legalized, taxed and regulated would be a benefit to the state. Republicans’ policy approach to these issues is not only shortsighted but incompetent.

Gambling is a serious addiction; many people fall victim to predatory practices by online sportsbooks. Georgia needs to strongly regulate gambling, as our failure to do anything has led to a wild west, where gambling is unregulated and our dollars are sent to benefit other states’ tax bases.

In the age of VPNs, prohibiting gambling policy allows gamblers to slip further into addiction without guardrails and oversight from the state. Unregulated and illegal gambling benefits no one in Georgia, and this is the current environment cultivated by Georgia Republicans.

Gambling has long been a contentious issue in the state Legislature with decadeslong deliberations, never seeming to gain the necessary momentum. For Georgia, inaction means more unregulated and untaxed gambling, a continued lack of meaningful support for those addicted and a much greater risk of a new generation of young people hooked on gambling. The more Georgia Republicans pursue policies to prohibit gambling and marijuana, the less ability they have to regulate and tax their consumption, advertisement and sale.

As illustrated during the prohibition of alcohol, people will continue to consume goods even when it is illegal. Significant majorities of Georgians would vote to legalize marijuana and regulate gambling if they were placed on the ballot. The inability to address these policy issues has lost the state billions of dollars in potential tax revenue and created dangerous, unregulated marketplaces. Georgia leaders must approach these issues with a frame of regulation and legalization, not prohibition and criminalization.

Legalize it. Tax it. Regulate it.

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Credit: Natrice Miller/AJC

Parker Short is the former president of the Young Democrats of Georgia and a graduate of DeKalb County Schools and the University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy. Short represented Georgia’s 4th Congressional District as a delegate at the 2024 DNC, serves as a member of the Georgia Democratic Party State Committee and is pursuing a master’s in public policy at Duke. He has worked in the state, local and federal government.