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InvisibleveggieM

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle
    #7542847 - 10/21/07 01:37 PM (16 years, 3 months ago)

The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle
by Rob Kampia
October 20, 2007 - indybay.org

What would you buy if you had an extra $42 billion to spend every year? What might our government buy if it suddenly had that much money dropped onto its lap every year?

For one thing, it might pay for the entire $7 billion annual increase in the State Children's Health Insurance Program that President Bush is threatening to veto because of its cost -- and there'd still be $35 billion left over.

Or perhaps you'd hire 880,000 schoolteachers at the average U.S. teacher salary of $47,602 per year.

Or give every one of our current teachers a 30 percent raise (at a cost of $15 billion, according to the American Federation of Teachers) and use what's left to take a $27 billion whack out of the federal deficit.

Or use all $42 billion for a massive tax cut that would put an extra $140 in the pockets of every person in the country -- $560 for a family of four.

The mind reels at the ways such a massive sum of money could be put to use.

Why $42 billion? Because that's what our current marijuana laws cost American taxpayers each year, according to a new study by researcher Jon Gettman, Ph.D. -- $10.7 billion in direct law enforcement costs, and $31.1 billion in lost tax revenues. And that may be an underestimate, at least on the law enforcement side, since Gettman made his calculations before the FBI released its latest arrest statistics in late September. The new FBI stats show an all-time record 829,627 marijuana arrests in 2006, 43,000 more than in 2005.

That's like arresting every man, woman and child in the state of North Dakota plus every man, woman, and child in Des Moines, Iowa on marijuana charges ... every year. Arrests for marijuana possession -- not sales or trafficking, just possession -- totaled 738,916. By comparison, there were 611,523 arrests last year for all violent crimes combined.

Basing his calculations mainly on U.S. government statistics, Gettman concludes that marijuana in the U.S. is a $113 billion dollar business. That's a huge chunk of economic activity that is unregulated and untaxed because it's almost entirely off the books.

Of course, the cost of our marijuana laws goes far beyond lost tax revenues and money spent on law enforcement. By consigning a very popular product -- one that's been used by about 100 million Americans, according to government surveys -- to the criminal underground, we've effectively cut legitimate businesspeople out of the market and handed a monopoly to criminals and gangs.
Strangely, government officials love to warn us that some unsavory characters profit off of marijuana sales, while ignoring the obvious: Our prohibitionist laws handed them the marijuana business in the first place, effectively giving marijuana dealers a $113 billion free ride.

All this might make some sense if marijuana were so terribly dangerous that it needed to be banned at all costs, but science long ago came to precisely the opposite conclusion. Compared to alcohol, for example, marijuana is astonishingly safe. For one thing, marijuana is much less addictive than alcohol, with just nine percent of users becoming dependent, as opposed to 15 percent for booze. And marijuana is much less toxic. Heavy drinking is well-documented to damage the brain and liver, and to increase the risk of many types of cancer. Marijuana, on the other hand, has never caused a medically documented overdose death, and scientists are still debating whether even heavy marijuana use causes any permanent harm at all. And then there's violence. Again, the scientific findings are overwhelming: Booze incites violence and aggression; marijuana doesn't.

Despite all that, we now arrest one American every 38 seconds on marijuana charges. And we do so at a staggering cost in law enforcement expenses, lost tax revenues, and staggering profits for criminal gangs.

The alternative is clear: Regulate marijuana just as we do beer, wine, and liquor. The only thing lacking is the political will.

Rob Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, DC.


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Offlinestew248
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Registered: 09/28/02
Posts: 1,730
Last seen: 6 years, 7 months
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: veggie]
    #7542866 - 10/21/07 01:41 PM (16 years, 3 months ago)

bingo


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InvisibleEntheogenicPeace
Scholar
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Registered: 10/04/05
Posts: 3,926
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: veggie]
    #7543175 - 10/21/07 02:56 PM (16 years, 3 months ago)

---


Edited by EntheogenicPeace (01/30/21 05:53 PM)


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OfflineSkeeblix
Dave Thomas
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Registered: 01/28/07
Posts: 1,745
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Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: EntheogenicPeace]
    #7543556 - 10/21/07 04:52 PM (16 years, 3 months ago)

Good read. Finally an article that isn't full of shit. Maybe one day people will wake up and realize what the U.S. is missing out on because of prohibition.


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This post approved by:


Premedman1 said:
:lol: I just shat my pants.


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Invisibledeucedbi9
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Registered: 10/24/06
Posts: 4,594
Loc: UK
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: Skeeblix]
    #7545724 - 10/22/07 04:13 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

>Finally an article that isn't full of shit<

but...
isn't the tax take their talking about based on prohibition prices?
i didn't open the PDF (neither my puter or i like them)just wondering...
who the hell would pay $7 a gram for legal plant material you could grow for nothing.
might buy some exotic hash/weed occasionally,but for the most part...
i have a garden!:grin:


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whether low pressure sucks or high pressure blows...
it's a bugger to cycle in.

even though I'm feeling good
Something tells me I'd better activate my prayer capsule


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InvisibleWhiskeyClone
Not here
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Registered: 06/25/01
Posts: 16,509
Loc: Longitudinal Center of Canada ...
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: veggie]
    #7546186 - 10/22/07 09:55 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

Won't somebody please think of the children!?!

What kind of message would we be sending?

:bitch:


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Welcome evermore to gods and men is the self-helping man.  For him all doors are flung wide: him all tongues greet, all honors crown, all eyes follow with desire.  Our love goes out to him and embraces him, because he did not need it.

~ R.W. Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

:heartpump:


Edited by WhiskeyClone (10/22/07 09:55 AM)


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InvisibleDNKYD
Turtle!

Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: deucedbi9]
    #7550531 - 10/23/07 11:36 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

Quote:

deucedbi9 said:
who the hell would pay $7 a gram for legal plant material you could grow for nothing.
might buy some exotic hash/weed occasionally,but for the most part...
i have a garden!:grin:




That's a very logical argument. However, not everybody has the money, time, and/or willpower to invest in tending a marijuana garden. It seems like an easy venture, especially if you just throw some seeds in the ground and wait for harvest time. But far more Americans, in my opinion, would be much happier being able to take a stroll down to the corner store and pick up a sack.
I could grow my own corn, tomatoes, carrots, etc., but I choose to buy them from a grocery store instead. I don't have the time, space, or money to harvest these myself.


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Invisiblekake
The answer to1984 is 1776.
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Registered: 05/06/99
Posts: 2,782
Loc: The 66th harmonic
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: veggie]
    #7552444 - 10/23/07 07:35 PM (16 years, 3 months ago)

Good article.

/me goes back to bashing his head against the wall known as politics


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The answer to 1984 is 1776.


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InvisibleRobMarley420
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Registered: 05/01/05
Posts: 12,554
Loc: Mushroom Mountain
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: kake]
    #7554322 - 10/24/07 10:01 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

Haha, I've got a persuasive speech to do for my Oral/Interpersonal Communications class and I was thinking about doing it on legalizing marijuana. I think I'm just gonna plagiarize this whole article and have all my work done and over with.


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Offlinea_guy_named_ai
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Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 767
Last seen: 15 years, 7 months
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: RobMarley420]
    #7554374 - 10/24/07 10:20 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

I'm thinking about sending this to my Dad.

Not bad article.


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Offlinea_guy_named_ai
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Registered: 09/24/07
Posts: 767
Last seen: 15 years, 7 months
Re: The War on Pot: America's $42 Billion Annual Boondoggle [Re: RobMarley420]
    #7554386 - 10/24/07 10:24 AM (16 years, 3 months ago)

I'm thinking about sending this to my Dad.

Not bad article.


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