Posted on 05/10/2006 7:31:03 AM PDT by cryptical
America's war on drugs is actually a Raid on Taxpayers. The war costs an estimated $70 billion a year to prosecute, and the drugs keep pouring in. But while the War on Drugs may have failed its official mission, it is a great success as a job-creation program. Thousands of drug agents, police, detectives, prosecutors, judges, anti-drug activists, prison guards and their support staffs can thank the program for their daily bread and health benefits.
The American people are clearly not ready to decriminalize cocaine, heroine or other hard drugs, but they're well on their way to easing up on marijuana. A Zogby poll found that nearly half of Americans now want pot legal and regulated, like alcohol. Few buy into the "demon drug" propaganda anymore, and for a simple reason: Several countries have decriminalized marijuana with little effect on public health.
Americans could save a ton of money doing the same. The taxpayers spend almost $8 billion a year enforcing the ban on marijuana, according to a report by visiting Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron. State and local governments consume about $5 billion of the total.
The war on pot fills our jails. America arrests 755,000 people every year for marijuana infractions -- the vast majority for possession, not dealing. An estimated 80,000 people now sit behind bars on marijuana offenses.
The Bush administration stoutly supports the campaign against marijuana, which others think is crazy. Compare the Canadian and American approach to medical marijuana: The Canadian Postal Service delivers it right into the mailboxes of Canadian cancer patients. The U.S. Justice Department invades the patients' backyards and rips out cannabis plants, even those grown with a state's blessing.
The Bush administration isn't going to last forever, nor is the patience of Americans paying for and suffering under the ludicrous war on marijuana. Surely letting sick people smoke marijuana to ease their discomfort -- 11 states have approved such, including Rhode Island -- would be a good start for a more enlightened drug policy.
For the drug warriors, however, this toe in the water seems a foot in the door for eventual decriminalization of pot. That's understandable. Relaxing the rules on marijuana would greatly reduce the need for their services.
Remember the Supreme Court case two years ago, when Justice Stephen Breyer innocently suggested that the federal Food and Drug Administration be asked to rule on whether marijuana had an accepted medical use? Well, the FDA has just ruled. In a total lie, the FDA said that no scientific studies back the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Actually, the prestigious Institute of Medicine issued its findings in 1999 that marijuana helped patients for pain and for the relief of nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy.
The federal government "loves to ignore our report," John Benson, a professor of medicine at the University of Nebraska and co-chairman of the committee that wrote the Institute of Medicine" study, said after the FDA issued its "advisory."
The Drug Enforcement Administration, which feeds off the drug war, plays a big part in stopping this and all future efforts to reach educated opinions on marijuana. Lyle Craker, a University of Massachusetts authority on medicinal plants, wanted to grow marijuana for the purpose of evaluating its possible medical uses. The DEA said no, insisting that he use marijuana from a University of Mississippi lab. The DEA knows full well that the UMiss pot is low-quality and therefore useless for study.
The drug warriors' incentive to keep the game going is pretty obvious. But what's in it for taxpayers?
Miron's Harvard study looked beyond what the public pays to enforce the marijuana laws. It also investigated how much money would roll in if marijuana were legal and taxed like alcohol. The answer was over $6 billion in annual tax revenues. Do the math: If government stopped outlawing marijuana and started taxing it, its coffers would be $14 billion richer every year.
We could use that money. For example, $14 billion could pay for all the anti-terrorism port-security measures required in the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002.
More than 500 economists of every political stripe have endorsed the Miron study. Growing numbers of Americans are beginning to agree with them: The war against marijuana is an expensive failure -- and pointless, too.
Froma Harrop is a Journal editorial writer and syndicated columnist. She may be reached by e-mail at: fharrop@projo.com.
I was going to ask for your address but I figure I'll just check the FBI files instead. :-)
The same people who've pushed and profited from the WoD are also pushing federal control of individual consumption or outright bans on everthing from tobacco and alcohol to Big Macs and video games. They even consider gun ownership a "health care" issue worthy of bureaucratic oversight.
The last time I checked, "nearly half" is not a majority, and an opinion poll is not an election. If pot were "regulated like alcohol", then the random "sobriety" police check points would have to include field urine tests for the presence of THC. If marijuana were "regulated like alcohol", the Federal and state taxes would soon make dope even more expensive than it is right now. More expensive dope would lead to (you guessed it) illegal "bootlegging", requiring more BAMTF (Bureau of Alcohol, Marijuana Tobacco and Fire Arms) Agents to insure that the Tax Man gets his cut.
Of course, the same drug lords who control pot and other drugs today will find ways to run the bootlegged pot operation (meaning that the crime and violence associated with drug trafficking would continue, legalization proponents arguments to the contrary notwithstanding). Now, the dopers would get to smoke their extremely expensive legal weed (or their less expensive, but illegal bootlegged weed) in the privacy of their own homes (much as they do right now), but once they hit the streets they would be subject to the same "public intoxication" laws as the average alkie. So what has anyone to gain from "regulating marijuana like alcohol"? Nothing, really.
As to your first question, we are a democratic republic with representatives. The current representatives are, in the main, dead set against MJ legalization, so it will remain illegal, for now. I didn't locate the "right" to dope in the Constitution, that must have been the "lost" Bill of Rights Amendment the Founders forgot to put in 'cause they were all stoned on that hemp Thomas Jefferson was growing.
Some insouciant Merlots with a hint of oak are expensive and they aren't bootlegged very often.
There are lots of taxes on gas and not too many people brew their own in their basement.
I want to see the drug lords wearing suits & ties, getting raped down their last Centavo in a Vendor Cubicle in Bentonville by a Walmart buyer over the price of Sam's Choice Wacky Tabacky.
F*** NAFTA.
We need them to grow it & send it up here so we can put a 15% customs duty on it.
What and put our own farmers out of business? The tobacco companies are all set to go. But seriously, I don't see why we can't buy both imported and domestic.
If you read the rest of my post, you'd find that "regulating MJ like alcohol", as the author suggested, would include taxing it. Since this would be a "sin tax" (like gambling or alcohol), it would be a hefty tax.
There's a limit to how expensive it could ever get since anyone can grow it in their basement with a few "grow lights". However, I expect that would be the exception. I can make my own beer and wine too but when I'm having a party I go to the liquor store.
Everybody in the traditional moonshining areas knows that there's more profit and less risk in growing Wacky Tabacky than in bootlegging booze. A good Merlot is (presumably) more expensive because of the time and care it takes to produce it, which is another reason why it's not "bootlegged". Any Walmart buyer who tries to rape a Drug Lord should be prepared to meet his "lil friend" (and his Maker). Then again, I don't think any drug lords will be shopping at, or selling to, Wal-Mart.
The only profit in producing pot commercially would be for the hydroponic growers.
Oh, yeah... If they weren't so busy busting drug dealers, we all know all those cops, judges, and prison guards could be laid off... 'cause we all know how crime plummets when drug laws aren't enforced! Seen Oakland's crime rate, lately?
Murder rate in "Twin Cities":
Dallas (D) 20.2
Ft Worth (R) 8.7
Tampa (NP, leans R) 8.7
Miami (D) 17.9
Orlando (R) 8.3
New York (R) 7.0
Los Angeles (R->D) 13.4
Chicago (D) 15.5
Philadelphia (D) 22.2
Baltimore (D) 43.1
Omaha (R) 4.9
Kansas City, KS (D) 25.3
Providence (R) 9.6
Boston (D) 10.5
San Diego (R) 4.8
Los Angeles (D) 13.4
Anaheim (R) 1.0
San Jose (D) 3.4
Jersey City (R -> D) 9.6
Newark (D) 30
Trenton (D) 21
And we have a federal agency (the ONDCP) who's job it is to make sure that things don't change.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.