What is the economic impact of legal pot.

Summary:

What are the stats and facts involving marijuana? Both sides have put out numbers of what could happen. Here are some of the key figures.

Cato institute says it would save about 8.7 billion dollars a year when you add up all the savings in law enforcement, incarceration, as well as providing a new source of tax money. Bill piper of the Drug Policy Alliance believes that it will reduce costs of incarceration tremendously. Joe Kline over at Time.com wrote that over 47.5% of all drug arrests in the US are drug related. California Board of Equalization says that marijuana could raise 1.4 billion dollars in levees and taxes. A bunch of nimrods on the other side made up some numbers out of their heads. Kevin Sabet who was writing for the Los Angeles Times said that “Accidents would increase, health care costs would rise, and productivity would suffer” And the current idiot in control of the National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlokowski said that “the social costs would outweigh any possible tax that could be leveed. Illegal drugs already cost 180 billion dollars a year in health care, lost productivity, crime, and other expenditures. That number would only increase.”

Interpretation:

The funny part is, when one looks at marijuana stats and facts, one side has fairly accurate numbers, and the other side has only conjecture. Those of us against the Prohibition of marijuana have compiled reams of data about the potential savings that legalizing marijuana could have on an economy. We also have test studies all over the world which show that reducing the criminal nature of marijuana doesn’t lead to increased health care costs, loss in productivity, or any such nonsense. When’s the last time someone visited Germany, Spain, Canada or The Netherlands and came away saying, “hmmmm. what a beautiful country, too bad it was infested with potheads!” What we see here in the above report is logic vs hysteria. You see, hysterical people actually believe what they are saying is true. Even when they are presented with clear data that states the contrary. They’ll go through whatever mental wormholes they need to in order to keep their current viewpoint on an issue because it’s important to them. For the prohibitionist, they get off on the idea of being able to control other people’s lives. That’s what they like, and that’s why many of them go into law enforcement. I know there are many good people in Law Enforcement against prohibition, and those are the good cops. The ones who actually want to help out the community. But then, there are others who are just a grown up version of a high school jock. They love having authority, and they love being able to make people submit. The prohibition of cannabis is no different, it’s a giant schoolyard bully that wants to tell you what to do. It’s unamerican, and thankfully it’s coming to an end soon!