The Economics

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                “Every year thousands of marijuana cases are prosecuted for political reasons.” (Rosenthal &Kubby)  This quote from Why Marijuana Should Be Legal should really shed some light on things, considering how much politics weighs into this particular matter.  If we are prosecuting people solely based on the politics of the matter, how much money are we essentially wasting each year?

    

    Here's where the problem lies:

                

                Let’s start with the costs.   In 2010 the U.S. Federal government spent approximately $15 billion dollars on The War on Drugs.  That was a rate of approximately $500.00 per second.  You can watch the drug clock by clicking here.  To put that into perspective the state of Vermont spent $1.2 billion on Medicaid costs in 2010.  The Cato Institute put together a report in 2010 that contains information about the amount of money spent and also the amount of money the U.S. Government would be able to gain if legalization were to happen.

                According to the report put out by the Cato Institute $8.7 billion dollars in revenue would be gained from the legalization of marijuana alone.  That may not seem like an enormous amount to some, but to break it down a little.  The cost of building a single family house in 2011 was about $310,000.00.  With 1.5 million American children suffering from homelessness, think of the impact that amount of money would make for them.  The amount of food that could be brought into food shelves would be astronomical. 

                So is it really worth it?  Some would argue that it isn’t simply based on arguments that it would increase crime, or increase the amount of people on other drugs such as heroin or cocaine.  However, there are many reports and studies that show the opposite.  When the alcohol prohibition was lifted there was a marked decrease in the amount of crime that the nation saw.  There were also fewer alcohol related deaths due to things like cirrhosis.  Taking a page from history may easily shed light on the questions and arguments that are being raised by people who are against the legalization of marijuana.

               

               

Rosenthal, Ed, and Steve Kubby. Introduction. Why Marijuana Should Be Legal, p.iv

"Drug War Clock." DrugSense. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Aug. 2012. <http://www.drugsense.org/cms/wodclock>.

Miron, Jeffery A., and Katherin Waldock. "The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition." N.p., 2010. Web. 11 Aug. 2012. <http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/DrugProhibitionWP.pdf>.