Legalization of marijuana would save the United States an estimated $20 billion per year
By David McClellan / medium
Even if you don’t use Marijuana, you should be supporting getting it decriminalized.
Tax Marijuana, Hit Cartels Where it Hurts
About 1 in 4 people have claimed to have used Marijuana at least once in their life and according to the Federal Government about 15 million Americans are currently using Marijuana at least once per month. Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the world and has shown no signs of slowing down.
Economics 101 states that where there is demand, there will be a supply and right now, the supply is mainly coming from Mexican drug cartels. These drug sales are grossing Mexican cartels a healthy $64 billion in untaxed drug revenue each year. In the last 5 years, police and drug cartels have killed a staggering 55k people and cartels are growing Marijuana in National Forests while running drug distribution networks in over 1k cities across the U.S. The legalization of Marijuana will put a big dent in the cartel revenue, reducing crime, lowering money spent fighting cartels while adding another source of revenue for the U.S. government.
Each year, over 75k people die from alcohol and over 100k people from prescription drug abuse yet, there have never been any documented deaths from the use of Marijuana.
Legalize Marijuana, Create Jobs & Business Opportunities
With the Marijuana legalization in states like Colorado, Washington and California (medical legalization) and many others, it has opened up many opportunities for new and existing businesses and the direct/wholesale sales industry are not the only ones benefitting from this. Businesses such as Marijuana business listings services like Weed Maps and FindLocalWeed.com have made very profitable businesses helping people find where to buy Marijuana. Other business have followed suit by offering services such as strain testing, publicly traded Marijuana vending machine companies and even scenic Marijuana tours to name a few. Cannabis is a rich source of paper (hemp), plastic and oil, which could become a massive industry in no time.
Decriminalize Marijuana on A Federal Level, Increase State Tax Revenue
Even with Marijuana legalized on a state level it’s still difficult to track revenue that should be taxed. This is because Marijuana is still mainly a cash business. As long as Marijuana is illegal on a Federal level, credit card companies won’t service Cannabis businesses, which makes it hard to track what revenue should be taxed. By opening up Marijuana legalization on a Federal level, it will solve this problem and help states increase tax revenue from the sale of Marijuana.
Additionally, the United States is known for its high incarceration rates. It is estimated that 1 in 5 inmates in state prisons and are serving time for drug related offenses. At a cost of $20-$40k annually per inmate to taxpayers, this could help reduce state and federal funding requirements for prisons and put that money to use in better places like transportation, education and the like.
Consider the facts:
Over the last decade, the NYPD has spent over 1 million hours enforcing Marijuana Laws; in 2012, over 600k individuals were arrested for Marijuana charges with the majority being for simple possession and since Nixon declared a “War on Drugs” in 1971, the U.S. government has spent over a trillion dollars fighting it.
Legalize Marijuana, Find More Medical Uses
Decriminalization of Marijuana will open up more studies as pharmaceutical companies will be able to fully profit from its medical benefits. Medical Marijuana has already been found to have medical benefits with things such as pain, Multiple Sclerosis, hardcore drug dependency and depression. Prescription drugs such as Sativex and Marinol have already been approved and are currently being used in countries such as the UK, Canada, Sweden and Denmark to name a few. Legalizing Marijuana would help the U.S. enjoy more medical benefits from Cannabis.
With more citizens including economists and politicians jumping on board to legalize Marijuana; now is the time to make this happen. The first step should be to remove Marijuana as a Schedule I drug and decriminalize it on a Federal level. This will push states to follow suit and ease the burden that it has had on our pocket books.
This article originally appeared on medium and is being republished with the permission of David McClellan.
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Don’t be fooled by “decriminalization” because citizens are still going to be treated like common criminals for marijuana under it. This is what Kevin Sabet wants.
Citizens will STILL be forced to the dangerous black market and a shady illegal street drug dealer to purchase their marijuana. Getting caught buying it is STILL a crime they will arrest and jail you for. Then, they will also FORCE you to mandatory rehab, and if you don’t comply, guess what? JAILTIME!
No thanks!
Also, we will still be wasting our tax dollars sending police around to ticket marijuana users and wasting police manpower and resources.
Instead of allowing our police the time, manpower and resources to protect us all from real, dangerous criminals who actually commit crimes with victims and pose a real threat to society.
Why else do you think they are so EAGER to “decriminalize”, instead of LEGALIZE?
Don’t Let’em Fool You!!!
DEMAND FULL MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION NATIONWIDE!
If you can’t purchase it legally, then it isn’t legal.
If you have to fear a monetary fine/ticket which if you don’t pay and/or show up in court to handle, you then become a criminal with a warrant out for your arrest, and when convicted (yes convicted, as in crime.) you will then be forced into free manual labor and/or forced drug rehabilitation to be used as another statistic prohibitionists love to flaunt about supposed “marijuana addicts”, then….No, it’s not legal!
This will not suffice! Getting caught purchasing marijuana is still considered a serious “drug deal” and you will be prosecuted for it!
Hi Brian –
If Marijuana is decriminalized, it will be legal. People won’t be arrested for it (think alcohol) unless there are underage laws put in place (all legal states have them). The rest will follow as states will vote to legalize it. There is just a process of having the big banks jump on board as well as new state laws that must be created. Decriminalization is the first and most important step as in order to decriminalize Marijuana, the Federal government would have the remove Marijuana as a schedule 1 drug (same as hard drugs).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decriminalization
the greatest plant in the universe is almost free, LET FREEDOM RING! 13
ENLIGHTENMENT…i was a brainwashed evil, mean, christian conservative until i tried it at 17 years old…i hated gays, immigrants, women’s rights, blacks, marijuana, i was Rush Limbaugh’s #1 fan….until i smoked marijuana….changed the world
1000s of my friends and family have grown 30-99 plants for 20 years, thanks for keeping prices high and NORCAL wealthy…#1 crop in cali = $15 Billion Untaxed…
“any doctor against marijuana is a doctor of death” – cali secret 420
from 0 states to half the country(now the majority), from low 20% approval to almost 70%, cali runs this planet by 2 decades, time to tie marijuana to the 2014, 2016 elections, out with the old, in with the new
20 years behind us southern states and NEW YORK, sad and scary….nobody denies freedoms like the south, nobody…the top ten incarcerators on the planet are southern states and more blacks are in prison then were slaves before the civil war…even if marijuana reforms did pass the republiCANTS in charge would deny you all your freedoms, centuries of practice…no matter though, we never planned on getting your backwards brethren from day one, half the country already but not one southern state, lol…not 1….the new generations are taking over in the south and they are nothing like their freedom denying parents, let’s ride…
Deaths by Alcohol: Millions
Deaths by Tobacco: Millions
Deaths by Prescription Drugs: Quadrupled in last decade
Deaths by Guns: MillionsDeaths by the food we are fed: Millions
Deaths by Marijuana: 0, ever…they are killing my American family while denying freedom
love and freedom forever
AMERICA’S WAR ON DRUGS IS A WAR ON AMERICANS! 33
What a great article!!! We need more of these FACTS to surface instead of false propaganda. If you couldn’t see these fact in front of your face before this story. Then you are either blind or brainwashed and didn’t want to see it. To take this article to heart and let freedom ring.
I love the article truly I do BUT the one thing that I here over and over is just NOT True the whole “Mexican Drug Cartel Thing” It’s Just Bull Sh%t. I was born and Raised In A small town in Northern California. That being said sure Mexicans GROW but come on…. There are more White Boys Growing up here in HUGE Quantities than anybody. Yea a cousin and an uncle or a brother in law of a sister sneak out on BLM land to grow 100 to 1000 1/2 ounce plants but come on CARTEL? I think not. Just mexicans taking advantage of Supply and demand. Not that Cartels don’t exist WE ALL know they do but this $hit has been blown out of proportion. The Truth is Mary Jane Grows Out Of The Earth (DIRT SUN WATER) prohibition brings profit for people who don’t want to pay taxes to a greedy Government. Simple Legalize Tax and stop throwing GOOD Loving Farmers Away For Spreading LOVE!!! ONE LOVE
You forgot to mention the cost of interdiction and enforcement in billions of dollars which will be eliminated.