High Times recently reported that New York City recorded, in 2009, the second highest number of marijuana arrests on record. The police arrested over 46,000 people – that’s right, 46,000 – for public possession of marijuana. That’s 46,000 people bogging down the judicial system, trudging through city precincts, and otherwise diverting the police from more pressing duties. I find this ludicrous and asinine.

New York City is now the marijuana arrest capital of the world. I can think of few acts as harmless as smoking a joint, even in a public park, and I find it hard to believe that a New York police officer feels a pressing need to arrest a public pot smoker rather than patrol the city’s streets. These are bad arrests – they are for minor and harmless infractions that require paperwork, processing and police time. And they cost taxpayers a whopping $50 to $90 million.

What is the point of putting 46,000 stoned people in jail? To teach them that marijuana is (allegedly) a gateway drug? How utterly absurd. This policy constitutes nothing short of a shameful and egregious waste of public money, a backwards policy, and an inexcusable lapse of competent government. Marijuana use is the most promising source of new government revenue in today’s battered and stressed economy. It stands to fill public coffers and plug gaping budget holes, unburden our judicial system, and give cops something better to do.

As governor, I will call for the legalized regulation and taxation of marijuana use. A stunning majority of pot smokers are responsible citizens who will gladly pay a tax to enjoy their ganja. Marijuana use poses no public health risk; in fact it poses public health benefits. Most important, we desperately need the tax revenue because we have run out of things to tax. Therefore, it is high time to end the exploitation of marijuana users and institute a responsible public policy of regulation and taxation.

Kristin Davis is a Libertarian candidate for Governor of New York. The Daily Caller interviewed her here.