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The True Cost Of Marijuana Prohibition: $20 Billion / Yr
NEW YORK -- Marijuana prohibition now costs state and federal government as much as $20 billion a year, an economist told The Huffington Post -- and legalization efforts are only just beginning to chip away at that.
That number comes from Jeffrey Miron, a senior lecturer at Harvard University who in 2010 studied the likely impacts of drug legalization, finding that about $8.7 billion would be saved on law enforcement and another $8.7 billion would be generated from taxes on marijuana. Accounting for inflation, that would add up to about $20 billion now, he said.
The number is modest in terms of the overall government budget -- but far too high a price to pay for a drug that does little to harm non-users, he argued.
As Miron acknowledges, his number is sort of a thought experiment, a suggestion of what would happen if marijuana was legalized on every level of government. Despite a recent Pew Research poll finding that 52 percent of Americans support marijuana legalization, politicians seem to only just now bewarming up to that proposition.
In Colorado and Washington, voters led the way in November referendums. But the rules and regulation around marijuana, which will be treated similarly to alcohol and tobacco under the states' laws, are only beginning to be hammered out.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/20/marijuana-prohibition-costs_n_3123397.html
That number comes from Jeffrey Miron, a senior lecturer at Harvard University who in 2010 studied the likely impacts of drug legalization, finding that about $8.7 billion would be saved on law enforcement and another $8.7 billion would be generated from taxes on marijuana. Accounting for inflation, that would add up to about $20 billion now, he said.
The number is modest in terms of the overall government budget -- but far too high a price to pay for a drug that does little to harm non-users, he argued.
As Miron acknowledges, his number is sort of a thought experiment, a suggestion of what would happen if marijuana was legalized on every level of government. Despite a recent Pew Research poll finding that 52 percent of Americans support marijuana legalization, politicians seem to only just now bewarming up to that proposition.
In Colorado and Washington, voters led the way in November referendums. But the rules and regulation around marijuana, which will be treated similarly to alcohol and tobacco under the states' laws, are only beginning to be hammered out.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/20/marijuana-prohibition-costs_n_3123397.html
HEY TEABAGGERS!!!! THIS IS WASTEFUL GOVERNMENT SPENDING!!!! TIME TO END THIS SHIT NOW!!!
4 replies
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= new reply since forum marked as read
Doesn't seem to matter the cost to taxpayers. What really matters is how much profit is generated for the private for profit prison system and who(m) ever else profits.
USA! USA! USA! 
