We are wasting money on the demand side because we are hardly stopping anyone from breaking the laws against marijuana possession. Many millions of Americans will smoke marijuana every year, at least 25 million or so according to the government statistics, and the real amount is probably higher. I don't believe there are many out there who really want to smoke pot but don't just because it was legal. The vast majority who do not smoke pot wouldn't smoke it if we legalized it, because there are so many other good reasons not to smoke pot aside from the laws we have against it.
We are wasting money on the supply side because we are not reducing the supply. We are not making marijuana hard to find. It is easy to find anywhere in this country, really easy to find. Teens report that it is about as easy for them to get as alcohol, and according to the statistics by the way teen smoking of cigarettes has dropped so low that now more tenth graders smoke marijuana than cigarettes. Aside from not making it hard to find, we aren't making it particularly expensive either. In fact in most places marijuana can be had for a price that makes it cheaper than beer on a per use basis. It's really a cheap buzz. Even the expensive indoor grown stuff is a pretty cheap buzz because it is so potent that it only takes a little for people to reach the desired effect.
We've tried for decades to reduce the use of marijuana and to reduce the supply enough to make it expensive and hard to find. We have failed miserably at this. Over the years we've spent more than 100 billion trying to enforce the ban on marijuana and we have absolutely nothing to show for it. I call that a waste.
“If our laws no longer reflect the will of the majority of the people they govern, well, we know what that means.”
Thankfully, the percentage for legalizing marijuana has been growing steadily since the 1990s. In the last three months there have been polls by Rasmussen Reports, Zogby and CBS on opinions about legalizing marijuana. The lowest percentage for legalizing was on the Rasmussen poll where 40% were for it, 46% were against it, and 14% were undecided. On the Zogby poll 44% were for it.
The percentage for legalization has been increasing by an average of about one point a year, and it looks like that trend is speeding up. We're going to see better than 50% for it in a few short years. Already close to 60% on the West Coast are for it an close to 50% on the East Coast are for it. Look to see politicians from areas where legalization has the most support using this issue to gain a political advantage in the coming years, like this state representative in California is doing now.
It's going to be legalized, Melinda. That's coming. I know a lot of folks who feel the way you do will be in panic mode when it does finally happen, but within a few years people are going to see that the sky isn't going to fall in. We're going to be better off just like we were better off after Alcohol Prohibition ended, and people are going to be wondering why we didn't legalize it a long time ago. Even a lot of people who feel the way you do are going to finally see that trying in vain to keep up the ban on marijuana was causing us a lot more harm than good.
ex-texan was right. But we Reublicans and Libertarians failed to heed his evidence. Oh well. Let’s not cry over spilled milk, shall we?