Common Sense Drug Policy - Marijuana (Pot)

I realize that for many this is a contentious subject, and I am aware of most sides of the argument. All I want to do is present a few statistics and let you make up your own mind, or at least be able to say you have thought about the issue.

Marijuana is the only drug I will address, for two reasons; 1) most folks agree of the illegal drugs it is the least dangerous, and 2) we have to start somewhere so I started with the 'low hanging fruit', so to speak. Let's look at the dollar and human cost of the war against marijuana, I think you will be surprised.

1. Existing estimates for the U.S. (from a study by Boston University economist Jeffrey A. Miron) indicate that that marijuana legalization would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition ($5.3 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $2.4 billion would accrue to the federal government).

2. A modest excise tax, less than that on alcohol for example, might produce revenue on legalized marijuana of around $400-$500 million per year.

3. Approximately 77,000 marijuana offenders are in prison or jail right now. There have been over seven million marijuana arrests since 1993, with 755,186 in 2003 - an all-time record. One person is arrested for a marijuana violation every 42 seconds, and about 88% of all arrests are for possession only, not manufacture or distribution.

These figures are taken from the following sites:
Marijuana Prohibition Facts - 2005: http://mpp.org/pdf/prohfact.pdf
Mr. Miron's Study http://www.bccla.org/prohibition/post%20prohibition.htm
Many of their figures are taken from US Dept of Justice reports.

If we add the numbers we see that decriminalization of marijuana adds back over $8 BILLION dollars a year to the US budget. Are there ways we could better use 8 BILLION dollars? How about health care for children? Medications for seniors? Propping up Social Security?

Now to the real cost, the human cost. Seven million Americans with an arrest record, many of these felony arrests causing them to lose their civil rights, perhaps permanently. They can't vote, hold a government job, join the military, or a myriad of other things. They are stained for LIFE for smoking pot. Let us not forget the 77,000 in prison or jail for the same reason, 88% of which just had some pot in their possession. They didn't grow it, or sell it, just had some to smoke. 77,000 sons/daughters, husbands/wives, fathers/mothers who We The People decided were so vile they deserved to be sent to prison, to have a felony prison term around their necks for the rest of their life, to be taken from their families and incarcerated with murderers, rapists, thieves and child molesters.

I believe marijuana should be decriminalized and sold/regulated as we do with alcohol. Driving while high is just like a DUI, you are still under the influence. Providing it to minors would still be a crime, there would places where consumption would be legal and many where it would not.

If We The People really understood the true costs of the war on marijuana I can't help but believe they would agree they far outweigh the problems of legalization. I understand that some oppose it purely from a moral perspective, and I can appreciate that, but if it were your son or daughter would you want them in jail with the true criminals? I know my answer to that, and assuming you love your child as I do mine, I think I know your answer too. Let's fix this.