slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2008
- Messages
- 6,483
Billions saved from ending prohibition could bring down the budget deficit. What is not serious about this?
We are once again months away from a budget crisis foisted on a beleaguered populace by a wretched, wretched Congress. Negotiators from both parties are seeking to bring down the country’s projected deficits as part of an agreement to keep the government open and prevent default on the national debt.
Ideally, we will not ride right up to the edge of the abyss, so close that as long as we live we cannot forget how it felt to stare down into the chasm of financial ruin and panic, so close that the churn in our stomachs never fully settles, always hanging there, a reminder that there is madness and chaos inside of us, held at bay but never vanquished.
But that’s wishful thinking. So in a few months, when we are hours away from a self-imposed deadline, I hope that one way we can close the gap between the parties and reduce our deficits – without higher tax rates or further cuts to cancer research or education for children with disabilities – is finally legalizing marijuana and ending a pointless, cruel and expensive policy once and for all.
Yes, marijuana should be legal and heavily regulated. This is obviously true. Unlike alcohol or tobacco, marijuana is not a leading factor in cancer, liver disease, domestic abuse or car accidents. It is also far less addictive than our legal drugs or prescription drugs like OxyContin or Percocet. And yet we arrest almost a million people every year simply for having this relatively benign substance in their pockets, an injustice tolerated in part because the execution of this irrational policy is felt far more by the poor and voiceless than it is by the governing class.
But here’s what else marijuana prohibition does: Enforcing this policy costs the federal government and state and local governments roughly $10 billion each year. If we include the failure to tax marijuana as we tax tobacco and alcohol, the opportunity cost of prohibition is closer to $20 billion each year, and some argue it is actually far higher.
cont at
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/08/legalize_pot_for_seniors_and_poor_kids_sake/
We are once again months away from a budget crisis foisted on a beleaguered populace by a wretched, wretched Congress. Negotiators from both parties are seeking to bring down the country’s projected deficits as part of an agreement to keep the government open and prevent default on the national debt.
Ideally, we will not ride right up to the edge of the abyss, so close that as long as we live we cannot forget how it felt to stare down into the chasm of financial ruin and panic, so close that the churn in our stomachs never fully settles, always hanging there, a reminder that there is madness and chaos inside of us, held at bay but never vanquished.
But that’s wishful thinking. So in a few months, when we are hours away from a self-imposed deadline, I hope that one way we can close the gap between the parties and reduce our deficits – without higher tax rates or further cuts to cancer research or education for children with disabilities – is finally legalizing marijuana and ending a pointless, cruel and expensive policy once and for all.
Yes, marijuana should be legal and heavily regulated. This is obviously true. Unlike alcohol or tobacco, marijuana is not a leading factor in cancer, liver disease, domestic abuse or car accidents. It is also far less addictive than our legal drugs or prescription drugs like OxyContin or Percocet. And yet we arrest almost a million people every year simply for having this relatively benign substance in their pockets, an injustice tolerated in part because the execution of this irrational policy is felt far more by the poor and voiceless than it is by the governing class.
But here’s what else marijuana prohibition does: Enforcing this policy costs the federal government and state and local governments roughly $10 billion each year. If we include the failure to tax marijuana as we tax tobacco and alcohol, the opportunity cost of prohibition is closer to $20 billion each year, and some argue it is actually far higher.
cont at
http://www.salon.com/2013/11/08/legalize_pot_for_seniors_and_poor_kids_sake/
