Marijuana
Willie Nelson just got arrested
for marijuana . (Surprise!) Our tax dollars at
work.I have never smoked pot. At
least, I didn't inhale.I did
inadvertently eat a cookie that contained marijuana once. It made me stupid and
sleepy. And it tasted like
crap.Still, it was illegal. I could
have been arrested, gone to jail, and had a conviction on my record. The only
reason people tolerate marijuana prohibition is that enforcement is so pathetic.
Only 3% of marijuana users are arrested -- though that amounts to over 600,000
arrests per year. Imagine if we suddenly had 100% enforcement, and everybody
who had used dope illegally had to go to jail. That includes both W. and
Schwarzenegger -- but not, oddly enough, Clinton, who was in England when he
smoked pot. More people use marijuana than vote -- put 'em all in jail, and the
streets would be pretty
empty.Marijuana as a less dangerous
drug than alcohol. Nobody gets stoned and beats people up, or shoots their
family. And when potheads drive, they tend to crash slowly, instead of at 115
miles per hour, like a drunk. In general, I think smoking pot is a bad idea.,
but hey, I think driving an SUV 40 miles to work is a bad idea, too -- that
doesn't mean we should imprison
commuters.What if, instead of spending
$10 billion per year on the pursuit of marijuana users, we decriminalized it --
to the extent of tobacco and alcohol, anyway -- and taxed it? Marijuana is the
fourth largest cash crop in America, with profits to growers of about $25 billion per
year . We tax it instead and it could generate an extra $25 billion
in revenue -- revenue we could use for, oh, say health care. Or education. Or
beefing up our military. Or cracking down on different drugs.
That's a $35 billion dollar swing.
That's not enough to eliminate the deficit, but it ain't lunch money,
either.What's more, I have faith that
our tobacco industry could make a fortune exporting their high-tech dope.
Wouldn't it be nice to have another boon for American agriculture?
Filed Tue - September 19, 2006, 06:55 PM in
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