slimvictor
Bluelight Crew
By Stanford University School of Medicine
Aug 3, 2010 - 12:26:20 PM
http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/new..._Legalization_s_Unintended_Consequences.shtml
(HealthNewsDigest.com) - +STANFORD, Calif. — With Proposition 19 on the November ballot, Californians get to decide whether to allow adults 21 years and older to possess, cultivate and transport cannabis for personal use, as well as enable its commercial production and sale. Earlier this month Keith Humphreys, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, discussed the potential consequences of legalizing marijuana for the school’s podcast series “1:2:1.” Humphreys recently returned to Stanford after a one-year stint in the White House as a senior advisor on national drug control policy.
What follows is an excerpt from Humphreys’ interview with Paul Costello, executive director of the school’s communications office, adapted for publication. The full interview, which includes discussion of Humphreys’ time in the Obama administration, is available at http://med.stanford.edu/121/2010/humphreys.html.
Q: There are estimates that, with legalization, marijuana use could rise 50 to 100 percent. Are those projections reasonable?
Humphreys: We know very well from other commodities that if you make something illegal, the price of it goes up. It doesn't matter what it is. And when you make it legal, it becomes much cheaper, because people are much more willing to work in an industry that’s legal and you don't have to enforce contracts and protect your wares by yourself, among other things. So the findings are credible.
Why they’re scary is that big drops in price tend to affect primarily the people with less disposable income. If you're wealthy, it doesn't matter to you that the price of marijuana drops by half. The people it matters to tend to be teenagers, the unemployed, other people who have just a small amount of extra money. This will drop marijuana from something they couldn't afford to do, for example on a daily basis, to something they could easily afford to do on a daily basis.
...
Q: What about the notion that by legalizing it you take it out of clandestine operations?
Humphreys: Well, I certainly don’t like drug cartels. It is true that by legalizing marijuana, you will probably get rid of some gun violence, for example, around it. And that is good, particularly for those people who live in those neighborhoods plagued by such problems. But, again, look at the example of a tobacco company. You could have substantially more death. There's lots of ways to do violence in this world. You can weaken government regulations in a way that results in thousands of people dying.
...
Aug 3, 2010 - 12:26:20 PM
http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/new..._Legalization_s_Unintended_Consequences.shtml
(HealthNewsDigest.com) - +STANFORD, Calif. — With Proposition 19 on the November ballot, Californians get to decide whether to allow adults 21 years and older to possess, cultivate and transport cannabis for personal use, as well as enable its commercial production and sale. Earlier this month Keith Humphreys, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, discussed the potential consequences of legalizing marijuana for the school’s podcast series “1:2:1.” Humphreys recently returned to Stanford after a one-year stint in the White House as a senior advisor on national drug control policy.
What follows is an excerpt from Humphreys’ interview with Paul Costello, executive director of the school’s communications office, adapted for publication. The full interview, which includes discussion of Humphreys’ time in the Obama administration, is available at http://med.stanford.edu/121/2010/humphreys.html.
Q: There are estimates that, with legalization, marijuana use could rise 50 to 100 percent. Are those projections reasonable?
Humphreys: We know very well from other commodities that if you make something illegal, the price of it goes up. It doesn't matter what it is. And when you make it legal, it becomes much cheaper, because people are much more willing to work in an industry that’s legal and you don't have to enforce contracts and protect your wares by yourself, among other things. So the findings are credible.
Why they’re scary is that big drops in price tend to affect primarily the people with less disposable income. If you're wealthy, it doesn't matter to you that the price of marijuana drops by half. The people it matters to tend to be teenagers, the unemployed, other people who have just a small amount of extra money. This will drop marijuana from something they couldn't afford to do, for example on a daily basis, to something they could easily afford to do on a daily basis.
...
Q: What about the notion that by legalizing it you take it out of clandestine operations?
Humphreys: Well, I certainly don’t like drug cartels. It is true that by legalizing marijuana, you will probably get rid of some gun violence, for example, around it. And that is good, particularly for those people who live in those neighborhoods plagued by such problems. But, again, look at the example of a tobacco company. You could have substantially more death. There's lots of ways to do violence in this world. You can weaken government regulations in a way that results in thousands of people dying.
...
