Could Marijuana Legalization Balance the Budget?
The following article represents the views of the author and is not representative of Queercents, the site owner or its other writers.
Did you hear the story on NPR last week about the marijuana farms that are taking root on public lands? I was floored when I heard that a pot farm was busted in Yosemite National Park, and that park rangers found over 7000 marijuana plants tucked away in the forest. That’s a lot of reefer, ya’ll!
The Yosemite pot farm is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Marijuana sales represent a $113 billion a year industry, making it America’s largest cash crop. Under the US’s current drug laws, that money is all traded on the black market, and the government receives zero tax revenue from marijuana sales. In our current state of economic decline, it’s time to start questioning the efficacy of America’s failed drug policy.
The War on Pot is a complete waste of government tax dollars.
The societal costs of propagandizing against marijuana and marijuana law reform, funding anti-marijuana ‘science’, interdicting marijuana, eradicating domestically grown marijuana and industrial hemp, law enforcement, prosecuting and incarcerating marijuana smokers costs U.S. taxpayers in excess of $12 billion annually.
Of the many numerous arguments that can be advanced by law reformers and advocacy groups like NORML, is the self-evident truth that marijuana prohibition, an utterly failed public policy, costs taxpayers too much and delivers few discernible social benefits.
Medical marijuana sales already generate $100 million in sales taxes for the state of California. Which is why the California legislature is currently debating whether it will legalize marijuana for recreational use in order to help alleviate the state’s massive budget deficit. According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, “A fiscal analysis of this proposal by the State Board of Equalization estimates that AB 390 could raise more than $1.3 billion yearly in tax revenue for the state of California.” NORML estimates that the federal government could raise nearly $14 billion annually if it were to legalize and regulate marijuana the way that it regulates alcohol and tobacco.
“America is in the midst of an economic recession,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said. “Taxing and regulating marijuana in a manner like alcohol ‘“ with state-licensed sales and age restrictions ‘“ would redirect criminal justice costs toward more serious crimes, raise tax revenue, and greatly reduce, if not eliminate, the involvement of drug cartels in the illicit marijuana trade.”
If marijuana could help stimulate the economy, why is it illegal? A recent episode of “Family Guy” actually sums it all up quite nicely.
Marijuana wasn’t always illegal. In fact, there were laws on the books in the early days of the American Republic that required farmers to grow hemp for industrial purposes. Cannabis isn’t just good for smoking. It’s great for making paper, rope, cloth, essential oils, and other products. But the tobacco, cotton, and timber industries stand to lose if hemp is legalized again. And the pharmaceutical industry is opposed to hemp legalization since any gardener can grow a marijuana plant. However, with the massive economic shortfall, it’s time to put the nation’s best interest ahead of corporate profits. Marijuana legalization could stimulate job creation, and the money that is being wasted to fight marijuana could be diverted to fight truly dangerous drugs, like crystal meth.
What’s your opinion? Are you a part of the 52% of Americans who support marijuana legalization? Or do you think it should remain illegal?
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Good post Serena. There is no question it should be legal. The arguments against legalization have been so weak for so long that I almost can’t believe its STILL illegal. Alcohol is legal but marijuana isn’t? Which do you suppose is a great destabilizing force in our society? I just learned yesterday that it was once illegal to sell organic oranges in the state of Florida and so covert distribution networks had to be established. I hope that 30 years from now we’ll all be amused at what we had to do to buy a 1/4 ounce.
Carol, I agree with you. People drink and drive, alcoholics beat their partners and ruin their own health, and yet alcohol is totally legal. Let’s weigh the impacts of marijuana – which has MANY health benefits – against the impacts of tobacco and alcohol. It’s not contest. I’m not going to say that marijuana doesn’t get abused. It does. But I think responsible use is the key.
I heartily agree!
One clarification that I think needs to be made: marijuana and hemp aren’t the same plant, and are legally differentiated. (They’re different subspecies of cannabis sativa. Hemp is tall and pulpy with close to nonexistent amounts of THC, marijuana is short and bud-filled with high amounts of THC, but shorter, cruddier pulp for fiber processing.)
I completely agree that *both* plants should be legalized, since there are huge benefits to be had from each. Hemp wouldn’t be nearly as gigantic a cash crop, but there’s a lot of importing going on now that wouldn’t be necessary if hemp were legal to grow here. And this vegetarian would *love* to have higher quality hemp nuts as a protein source again!
As for the financial side of legalizing marijuana, it’s inarguable. The $$ that would be saved in arrests, prosecutions, incarceration and probation alone would be astounding, let alone $$ from taxing sales. It really seems like a no-brainer, especially after you add in the fact that legalization will remove a lot of the real ‘gateway drug issues’ (many dealers stand to profit a lot more from harder drugs, kids don’t believe that heroin can really fuck you up since pot didn’t, etc.). Abuse is an issue that can be dealt with the way alcohol abuse is dealt with – I highly doubt legalization will measurably increase the # of people who try or use pot, so legalization will just enable people who have a problem with it to deal with it more openly.
The history of hemp and marijuana becoming illegal is a story of lots of racism, classism and corporate greed. There aren’t any good reasons to maintain its illegality, and CA’s current budget crisis may (finally?) be the big push the state needs to get the law caught up with common sense. It’d still take a long while for the feds to catch up, but progress is long overdue!
Great points, Alice. I think your argument about “gateway drugs” is really important. The propaganda on TV of potheads getting pregnant in a ditch somewhere because they smoked one joint is just ridiculous. Where are the anti-meth ads? Meth will really fuck up your life. Pot – most likely you’re just going to forget things and eat a lot of brownies. What’s the problem?
one of the most-underestimated benefits of legalization is the economic impact, and liquor- or tobacco-style taxes on legal bud is only the tip of the iceberg
I’ve never seen reliable numbers, but I believe, as Alice mentioned, that the savings in police, court and prison costs would be phenomenal; and don’t forget the medical costs attributable to inter-gang violence that always goes along with any form of prohibition
even further, as people start to realize marijuana is legal, hemp will lose it’s stigma and become accepted as clothing, oils, paper, food ~ it’s not called The Goddess’s miracle plant without reason
This can have it’s pros and cons. I can’t say that I would agree with pot being legalized for the sake of the children and it being “misusedâ€. Growing up i’ve seen many kids throw their life away for it. Even if it doesn’t affect your health that much, it still can become an addiction, a habit, and not a good one.
Marijuana prohibition has been a total failure and is perhaps this country’s greatest mistake. Not only has it created criminals out of nearly a third of the country’s populace, it costs our society billions of dollars every year, creates a strain on our prison system, and has little or no effect on marijuana use in the US. In some cases, prosecuting marijuana use has turned non-violent, middle class kids into violent and unpredictable, career criminals. Once a person has a criminal conviction on their record, they are far less likely to find a good job and become a useful member of society. Other countries with more liberal drug laws have much lower rates of drug addiction among their people. I invite you to my web-page devoted to raising awareness on the assault on our civil liberties: http://freethegods.blogspot.com/
Sophia, I agree that marijuana can be addictive. But so can Percoset and Valium, and yet these drugs are totally legal. I’ll be addressing your concerns more in depth in a post later this week. Because I do think it’s an issue.
Scott, well said.
Zorya, I couldn’t agree more. I think hemp’s potential to be used as a renuable source of energy, as well as for other industrial purposes, is a major reason why it is illegal. Too many corporate interests are at stake. However, I heard that the tobacco corporations are ready to start selling pre-rolled joints whenever marijuana becomes legal. I guess they see pot as their new cash crop. Cigarettes have lost their commercial appeal, so it’s just smart business for them to move onto a better product.
I have to agree that probably anyone who wants to smoke marijuana probably already does. And some of them are criminalized for it, and all the money goes to criminal organizations. It’s always hard to contemplate legalizing a drug that does have health implications but, like smoking, you can put age restrictions, restrict where you are allowed to smoke to protect people from second-hand smoke and tax the heck out of it so that you’ve recouped some of your health costs down the road.
I seriously think it hasn’t been decriminalized thus far because the criminal organizations lobby against it.
Cannabis could make the governments billions and save law enforcement billions, this is the way out of this recession! and with the added benifit of people being a whole lot more chilled out on pot vs alcohol.
FREE THE WEED!
STOP THE WAR ON DRUGS!!!
As Mexican drug cartels move into quiet Atlanta neighborhoods, Senators Chambliss and Isakson tell us they’ll take NO steps to legalize marijuana because “it might be bad for us”.
http://tr.im/msHB
The cartels murdered more than 6,000 people last year and more than 2,300 people so far this year while marijuana has never killed a single person in the history of mankind.
Our *only* protection from the cartels is to legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults. End the Prohibition!!
I always wondered why alcohol is legal while marijuana isn’t. Alcohol is way more dangerous!
What I don’t get, we are the people, we make the government theoriticaly speaking. So why is it that we can’t get this on a ballot to be voted on??? Why are we allowing the leaders elected
To represent the people Screw us around the way that they are?? How do we get this on the road? Writing articles which recieve so many comments of support reflecting the polls that are being published isn’t the only way the people participate in this government that we supposedly make up? Is it? What does it truely mean to be American if the publics opinion is not as credible as the publics officials? Somebody tell me there is a more direct way to speak to our leaders. Ever since jfk we seem to be chasing our tales in a circle, enough is enough, please for the sake of this country, let us come together and handle the issues that need to be handled, the issues that are our responciblity simply because those who we hire to do the jobs are not doing them.
I’m completely lost on this one, I don’t use any drugs except for an occasional beer so there isn’t any bias coming from my end here, but I know people that do sometimes smoke marijuana, and when we go out to sporting events they are always less rowdy, and seem to really enjoy the game while not displaying any poor behavior at all, while I may have a couple beers and maybe get a little loud and probably obnoxious to some around us. So I guess I’m asking someone who has personal experience with marijuana, what makes it so illegal? Is it health reasons? But even that doesn’t make sense because cigarettes are very unhealthy as well as alcohol just based on the number of annual deaths, and I keep hearing people say no one has died from marijuana alone, so I’m very lost as to why someone would go to jail for it? Can someone fill me in as I am most likely missing the big picture I guess?
Thank You
Thats the problem, other then for the sake of children, who have the best chances of accessing marrijuana with the system as it is, there are no reasons for it to be illegal, there is no justification. Atleast that the government can come up with. This is our country
Cindy, you’ve asked some legit questions and brought up some good points. From my research, marijuana is illegal due largely in part to corporate interests. Any Mary Jane could grow a pot plant in her backyard. The pharmaceutical companies don’t get to make money off of something like that. And yet they’ll sale pot in a pill form and charge patients $9 a pop for it.