(Photo Credit: jaypeg21 via flickr)
With the federal budget deficit continuing to explode, and states like Florida and California facing unprecedented budget shortfalls, we continue to spend billions of dollars a year locking up our friends and relatives for enjoying something that is demonstrably less dangerous than alcohol or nicotine (or any number of drugs that made their way through the FDA approval process only to kill or harm the sick). Perhaps it’s time for a change in America's marijuana policy?
Enter the LA Times’ Patt Morrison and an opinion piece entitled “Should We Tax Pot?” Morrison starts off well, making the following connection:
“Friday is the 75th anniversary of the end of a nationwide ban on a substance that millions of Americans broke the law and bought anyway: liquor. Criminalizing it turned out to have complications so enormous and expensive that in 1933 a new president, faced with a profound economic crisis, wanted it legalized and taxed again. …
… A couple of years ago, the legalize-it forces estimated that the U.S. marijuana crop was worth $35 billion a year. California's share of that was $13.8 billion. If the number is even half that, any tax windfall, on top of money saved by not prosecuting marijuana crimes, would mean a bonanza, wouldn't it?”
This article appears in Dec 3-9, 2008.