the social cost of the failed war on drugs is draining the US Treasury and turning the Mexican border into a war zone. It is time to stop the silliness.
Three hundred economists including 2 Nobel Prize winners are advocating the legalization of marijuana. They argue that it will help lower government expenditure since there will no longer be money spent on imposing the ban. They also point out that by taxing the sale of marijuana, billions in revenue can be raised and we would have a new marijuana industry that could create jobs as well.
Lower government expenditure, generate government revenue, and create employment. This can all be achieved by a stroke of a pen that will legalize marijuana. It seems like a made in heaven solution.
There have been countries cited such as Portugal and Switzerland that data seems to suggest that drug problem in general have lowered when drugs was no longer a criminal offense. One of the interesting thing about a report made by the Open Society which generally found a positive report of the decriminalization of…
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Passing Through . . . . 
This is an interesting topic–the legalization, regulation, and taxing of marijuana. People will use these drugs whether or not they’re legal and they can get them now.
One argument says that legalization would put the drug traffickers out of business, basically reducing their status to that of bootleggers. After all, it was prohibition that brought the Mafia to the USA. That argument seems to make sense.
But then I look at the other side of the coin. Repealing prohibition didn’t reverse the damage to society. The Mafia is still here. Maybe the drug cartelles would still be going strong. What do you think?
I think the answer is legalization with control similar to liquor stores and making clinics available to people who want to get off current dependence.
It really wasn’t that long ago that that Coca Cola used cacao leaves in their “secret formula”–basically cocaine. We didn’t have narcoterrorism in those days, nor did we have rampant drug use. I know that street drugs are seriously harmful to individuals. Some are so addictive that the need for them takes over one’s life. but making them illegal has damaged society in other ways. People still get them if they want them, but illegally. That fosters organized crime and violence.
I have two questions:
1.) Would usage of street drugs be significantly greater if they were made legal? After all, cigarette usage has dramatically dropped due to peer pressure and awareness of health risks. On the other hand, peer pressure keeps cigarette usage high among our youth. It’s a dilemma
2.) Would legalization reverse the damage to society? As I said before, prohibition gave strength to the Mafia, but repealing prohibition didn’t get rid of the Mafia. It’s like eating X–something that causes cancer. Once you have the cancer you can’t cure it by eliminating X from your diet. That’s a dilemma, too.