Opposing Views: OPINION: Is Marijuana Legalization Good for Our Economy?

Is Marijuana Legalization Good for Our Economy?

By Opposing Views Editorial Staff , To Protect and Serve Opposing Views - October 25, 2009

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Marijuana is by some estimates California's largest cash crop, bringing in more than twice the revenue of vegetables, yet we don't tax this green. According to experts, legalizing and taxing pot could provide $1.3 billion to help our hemorrhaging economy, but it might also lead to additional problems and undermine anti-drug efforts. Is this crop just cash waiting to be reaped, or is it more complicated? Hear advocates on both sides argue the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana.

See the entire debate from Commonwealth Club.

Regarding Article

OPINION: Is Marijuana Legalization Good for Our Economy?

More than we know.

Even if everyone grew their own marijuana and no large tax boon was realized,what about all the untaxed cash flow now going to Mexico,being spent in our own country because we no longer have to buy marijuana grown by the Cartels.
And the amount of money saved by people that replaced some of the pharmaceutical prescription drugs ,such as sleeping pills,would be staggering.
But that is exactly why big pharm is fighting legalization or even removing marijuana from schedule1.
They spent 30 million in the 2008 election ,and I'll bet they top that by double in the 2010 election funds.
They don't follow any political agenda and in the last cycle they gave too both parties equally.
http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=H04
The above link will let you check to see if your legislators are receiving funds from the pharmaceutical industry and will tell you how they will vote on any decriminalization of marijuana.
Ron Paul and Barney Frank ,with bills in congress for marijuana legalization,receive no funds from the lobby,while both my senators from Texas receive hundreds of thousands from them and both refuse too support even medical marijuana legalization.

- Clay October 25, 2009 2:38PM

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The effect

Many economic studies have shown that wages by frequent drug users are lower than non-users (one study of Amsterdam demonstrated a 7% decrease in wages); however, it would take a considering number of people to begin to use marijuana at frequent levels for government 's budget to decline since the " war on drugs " and prison funding would be cut substantially and income tax revenues wouldn't suffer too much unless a somewhat decent sized amount of people in the medium income bracket started to use cannabis and saw their wages decline or they were only able to obtain lower paying jobs . Overall economic growth (due to a lack of consumer spending) would decrease only marginally, unless, again, substantially more people started to use marijuana. Also, I don't know the social costs of drug use for marijuana specifically. The number the DOJ provides only give them for drugs overall.

So, really, the question is outside the hand of pure budgetary economics and must turn to either social economics or sociology. The question is, if cannabis were legalized would the number of "frequent" users increase, and if so by how much? Firstly, there has never been an applicable modernized country studied that has fully legalized marijuana that would allow us to conclude anything if we were to do it. The Dutch are the closest and they are heavily restrictive on how much the coffee shops can actually sell to a particular consumer and growing / producing cannabis is still illegal (this makes sense) .While most studies say decriminalization does not increase cannabis usage (although there are notable exceptions), it's hard to say about legalization since we have no sufficient model and legalization would allow promotion, advertising and greater accessibility of the product as opposed to just decriminalization.

Decriminalization would likely have little economic consequences and would likely benefit the federal and state governments on the whole from a budget perspective. I would advise trying it in a liberal state first before applying it across the entire U.S. to test the effects since its difficult to generalize information from the Netherlands and Europe to our situation because of cultural differences. Regardless, the economic effects and budgetary effects wouldn't be particularly substantial.

Legalization is an entirely different matter, though, and would require a lot more studies before we can say anything about that.

This is too simplistic of a discussion though since it fails to account for health concerns or overall good of society which needs to be balanced with the economic argument, of course.

- caelum October 25, 2009 3:26PM

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- Note
  
  drug users meant cannabis users in the study I cited in the first line.
  
  - caelum October 25, 2009 3:26PM
  
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- Studies
  
  Read the 1972 Shaeffer Study. It was one of the largest done,and we paid for it.
  
  - Clay October 26, 2009 2:29PM
  
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- Drug tests
  
  Due to drug testing ,the frequent "users" often work at places with less testing and laxer atmosphere's,since cleaning up for an employment test is easy,but random testing can cost you a good job
  and or career. When the drug testing goes to a method for checking under the influence instead of has done within last 3 weeks,I would expect income for users will climb.
  
  - Clay October 26, 2009 2:39PM
  
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  - Uh
    
    None of the employers did drug tests in the studies I'm referring too, these were done in Amsterdam where nobody cares.
    
    - caelum October 28, 2009 8:16PM
    
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Legalize it!

Valid medicinal value, it’s a victimless crime , the War on Drugs WAY too costly, too many arrests for simple possession, tax it and use the money to pay for health insurance and to reduce the deficit . Need I say more?

Woodstock Universe supports legalization for a variety of reasons. Check them out and vote in our poll "Should marijuana be legalized?" at http://woodstockuniverse.com

Current poll results: 96% for legalization and 4% opposed.

Add your vote. Poll runs through October.

Peace, love, music, one world,
RFWoodstock

- RFWoodstock October 26, 2009 7:52AM

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