Marijuana legalization and big bucks for the economy

Whatever your opinions are of the infamous, green “devil weed,” the fact is that the general consensus in the U.S. is for legalizing it.  Prohibition of marijuana is slowly losing ground as state after state looks for a better way to handle the situation.  It may be taking a lot longer than something like alcohol did to shed these laws, but the consequences of keeping it illegal are similar.  We know that it has medicinal value, that it’s way less dangerous that most drugs (including many prescription drugs) and now economists are looking at some of the more practical reasons why marijuana legalization needs to be rethought.

Economists have been studying this problem and are saying that we could easily save our country and states nearly $14 billion a year just by reversing the prohibition laws.  That’s quite a chunk of change.  Most of this savings will come for the obvious reason - that there will be a much lower bill in multiple areas of law enforcement.  The price to arrest, convict and then imprison marijuana users is pretty extreme, estimated at just under $8 billion per year.  With nearly one in eight drug convictions each year involving pot users, that’s a lot of people we’re paying for.  Worse yet, the vast majority of these convictions are for possession, not anything like mass distribution or sales.

Further, some are saying that marijuana sales, if properly taxed, would funnel billions more into the economy every year.  Heck, we might even be able to use some of that money to keep schools and hospitals open so that people who really need these services can get them, courtesy of a few million people’s habit of choice.  There are also several other ways that people believe marijuana could generate revenue.

So isn't this a bad thing, to keep struggling with these laws simply because of moral issues?  While we hypocritically allow alcohol to roam free in our society, a much less dangerous drug is still being buried by the power of it’s profiteering enemies - mainly the prison system and pharmaceutical companies.  It’s time to stop cutting the budget and start thinking about logical and mostly harmless ways to improve the economy overall.

Marijuana Buds photo courtesy of the DEA via Wikicommons