Economic Advantages of Legalization

-With the free market price, technically, the price of a joint would be 5-10 cents.

-In terms of intoxication levels, 1 joint=$2 worth of alcohol.

-This means the government would tax ganja till it cost the same as alcohol, 1-2 dollars.

-To achieve these prices, the gov. would oppose a “harmful tax” of around $.50-1.00 tax. “Harmful Tax” is a tax on items to control their use to prevent abuse.

-These taxes would raise around $2.2-$6.4 billion a year, saving tax payers 8-16 billion!

-This is just for the tax on the prevetion of abuse on marijuana! There are many other ways to make money with cannabis. The 50,000 uses of hemp alone could raise 2-3 times that!

-This issue is very complicated, and is world-wide. Policies range from decriminalization to full legalization.

-Decriminalization is where the use of, and cultivation of marijuana, in limited amounts, is not legal, but tolerated. This means that if your within the limits, your ok. A fine is the worst penalty for having too much. Legalization is where it is sold commercially like beer. The government can tax it and stuff.

-Decriminalization is supported by several countries and many organizations. Presidential Commission of Marijuana, California Research Advisor, Canadian Le Dain Commission all support it. Vancouver, Amstterdam, and many other countries have decriminalized marijauna sold in stores!

-Decriminalization reduces the punishment and respects peoples personal freedoms, but still has some what control of abuse. The only problem with this is that people who don’t grow will still have to rely on the risky balck market weed to use. Could be laced. Most countries with decriminalization have coffeeshops which are legitamate businesses that sell marijauna as they would beer.

-The only way to be completely sure that the marijuana out there is pure, is to make it legal. This way the government controls the product. This way they can insure its purity(This is not found anywhere in the world due to the Single Convention Treaty on Narcotics.)

-The Netherlands are the best example of decrim. They tolerate possession and sales of up to 30 grams in their coffeeshops. Not legal, but tolerated. Large scale trafficking is punished though.

-The success of control of hard drugs and no marijuana abuse in Dutch has begun a league of cities who believe in legalization.

-If legalized, marijuana would become the cheapest intoxicant out there by far.

-In an untaxed free market,. Bulk marijuana could cost as low as $.75 an ounce.

-Premium weed would cost $2 and ounce, the same as premium tobacco.(It would be around 5-10 dollars because of sinsimella process the companies would have to go through to get the premium weed. Hydro weed wouls also cost a little more.) The point is that it is a plant, and that it would cost ridiculously low prices!

-In 1929-1930 prices were $1.20-$2.40 an ounce, but are now $100-$600 per ounce(low-premium).

-2-3% THC in low grade, 10-15% in premium.

-1 cigarette size joint=.9 grams. Ave joint=.4 grams

-Ounce of “Standard Pot”(a little above average) equals 60 joints. Joint=regular dosage. Premium= around 120 “dosages” for the same amount.

-Free market a $6 joint would cost $.06!

-Joints could be sold the same as cigarettes(#$3.50 a pack of 20)where ¼ the money goes to the gov!

-In a free market, a smoker could support a 10 joint a day habit w/ just $.50 a day! In this aspect, people who are poor from there drug addictions, will be lifted and have more money to get themselves into the business world!(Being that dependant on a substance is their fault, but helping them would benefit the country!)

-These prices would raise abuse levels, however, that is why taxes would be put on to bring prices to alcohol levels.

-To estimate prices, you must compare with alcohol. 1 joint=2-4 beers, 1-2oz liquor, 1/3-2/3 bottler wine.

-These amounts of alcoholgo for $1.25-$2.50 in almost every store. Therefore joints would be raised to about that amount.

-This works out to be about $75-$100 an ounce, $2.15-$8.10 a gram(“dime” bag)

-To maintain pprices, the gov. would tax registered dealers, but not growers.

-This means the sale of unregistered homegrown weed would be banned. People could grow, but only for personal use.

-The best stradegy would be to let the US grow marijuana as they would apples, tomatoes, etc. Then they could use it if they wanted, but if they grew it themselves.

-When Alaska let their people grow up until 1991, they still didn’t. Still paid the $250 and ounce price! People didn’t have time to grow their own.

-Making growing legal, however, would give smokers no excuse for buying black market(unless they were unable to grow which causes problems)

-Another way to limit the abuse would be to regulate consumers directly, for instance, by issuing “license” to buy/sell/grow pot.

-By charging fees for licenses to sell, the gov. could make more money.

-The disadvantage to this is that it would be hard to enforce the unlicensed growing/selling/using of it.

-To make this work, and other thing to do would be to make commercial sale illegal, but licenses for growing/using personally would be issued.

-This way is not my favorite, because people who didn’t have a license to smoke would still be going to jail!

-100yrs. Ago the British Indian Hemp Drugs Commission concluded that prohibition was useless.

-These type of strict taxes worked well in India and other countries, but it grew naturally, so soon was banned.

-Since it is natural(unlike alcohol) even with taxes, the prices were so cheap abuse(if you can abuse the drug at all!) was still sommen.

-Why should cannabis, a weed, be taxed in the first place? Why should the government concern itslef with a private decision of the user? Why shouldn’t the prices be controlled by supply and demand on the free market?

-These can be best answered by the innocent people(people who wouldn’t be using the drug)who would be paying the taxes. This can be answered again with a harmful tax. These taxes are payment for any external costs occurred by marijuana use. This meas people using the drug irresponsibly and hurting others(driving, violence, etc.). The internal costs of the drug(harm to self) would have to be paid by the user, and would not be opposed in the harmful tax.

-From a public health stance the taxes should be higher to prevent abuse as well as damages.

-This idea is understandable….with addictive substances…nto marijuana. It is not addictive, therefore any abuse is the direct fault of the user. If your not addicted, but abuse something, you are responsible for your actions. Not the drug!

-Although more studies could be done, the California Research Advisroy has found that weed is less harmful that tobacco and alcohol(It isn’t addictive, not as vioent as drunks, and many other factors that make it less harmful).Therefore the taxes should be less than the other two drugs.

-Studies have found that daily users have a 19% chance of having respatory problems. However, with decrim, new smoking techniques, low smoke producing strains, and other things can reduce those numbers!

-W. Manning created table estimating the tax levels of alcohol and cigarettes. The charts are based on insurance rates, and early death(retirement, pensions, etc.)

Cigarettes(20)=Alcohol(excess 1oz)=MJ(1 joint):

$.38 $1.19 $.40-.90

For tobacco he concluded that medical care=$.26 a pack(about a penny each).

-On a weight-for-weight basis, weed is more harmful than tobacco. The average joint, however, is about ½ the size of a cigarettes. Weed also isn’t smoked as often as tobacco, maybe 1-2 JOINTS a week. While a tobacco smoker smokes 5-7 PACKS a week! The final estimate is that 1 joint is equal to 2 cigarettes, which makes the external costs for this issue around $.15 each. Second hand smoke is 3-4 times less than with tobacco so that would only occur a $.02 tax. The tax for alcohol(the only other legal intoxicant) for external costs is $1.19.

-The external costs with alcohol will be much less for weed however. Doctors have said that a switch from alcohol to marijuana is prefered because weed isn’t addcitive, it makes you lazy(less likely to drive), more alert(if you drive it is still dangerous, but not as dangerous as alcohol), and several other factors. This would make the final tax on weed for its intoxication effects, around $.38 a joint.

-To conclude, a fair harmful tax is around $.50-$1 a joint. This equals aroudn $1-$2 a joint, which is the target price.

-Higher grade weed will have higher tax like alcohlic beverages(liquor more tax than beer).

-19.5 americans use weed once a year, 5.3 a week, and 3.1 are daily users. At $.50-$1 tax a joint, the government would make mad money!

-With the use going up, there would be around 2,750-5,500 tons of weed a year.

-We must find what % of that is homegrown. A lot of people would grow it for themselves because of how easy it is. At $2 a joint, 3 a day is around $2000 a year, and about 60% of users are multiple day. With this, about 20% of consumption would be homegrown. Therefore 2,200-4,400 tons would be commercial. With $.50-$1 going to the gov. per joint, they would make over $2.2-$4.4 billion a year on taxes alone!

-Spin offs of weed would also be beneficial. Coffeeshops would open thousands of jobs alone! Sales tax wouod also raise a lot of money.

-Hemp, the most useful plant out there, will raise BILLIONS for thegovenment as well. Because of its many uses, it is figured to raise about 15 billion a year.

-Legalization would also save the enforce,ment offices $9 billion a year off of cannabis arrests.

Total Government Earnings

$2.2-$6.4-Excise Taxes

$.2-$1.3-Sales taxes

$6-$9-Law Enforcement Savings

$10-$15-Hemp Industry

$.2-$1.3-Money from “Spin Off” things

$6-$10-Reduced hard-drug & alcohol use

$24.2-$43 billion=Total Government Saving a year!