hey i am doing a research paper on how leaglizing cannabis could or could not benifit the economy, and i am looking for others imput is on the issue, and any other ideas that would go allong with this topic. christine.
It's a tough argument. It would definitely create some number of jobs, but it would also eliminate many law enforcement and corrections jobs. The moral issue is profiting from a beneficial industry rather than from a necessary evil. It's hard to make a financial justification though. Even trying to tackle the argument of enforcement is tough. Sure, we spend a gross amount of money enforcing prohibition, but we would also have to spend a lot of money building systems of regulation, quality control and distribution. There are so many arguments and counter arguments here. It's difficult to show, soundly, that there would be financial benefits either way. The cost of treating the drug problem as a criminal justice issue vs as a mental health issue is also a very sticky argument. Keep in mind that VERY expensive programs will be necessary to treat the mental health issues of non-violent marijuana offenders that should definitely be released from prisons. Prisons are terrible, hell on earth institutions that leave people with all sorts of mental problems. Adding addiction treatment and education costs only makes it more difficult to argue. That having been said, here is a link to a paper written by a Harvard professor on the subject: About.com: http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/mironreport.html It's probably the most comprehensive analysis I've seen on the subject. His references are sound and well cited. Best of luck and be sure to post your paper here!
It's actually a lot more complicated than that. Not that you aren't correct, I personally think you are. It's just that the government has a way of twisting dollars-and-cents arguments into quagmires where no one is able to prove or disprove anything at all, rendering said arguments completely ineffective. Best to avoid them, or only rely on these arguments as supplementary to more effective, moral-based arguments.
It costs approximately 78 dollars a day per "criminal" and there has been over 800k marijuana related arrests per year since 2006. I'll let you do the math on that one.
nefarious kind of hit on my point already. i kind of want to know how making weed legal all at once is going to help anything and not just completely cripple some parts of our economy. aside from the corruption from banks/pharma/politics in general etc... we have no infrastructure. lets say weed is made legal tomorrow. or even within the next year; we have no stores, there are no mass grow commercialized operations to deal with the infinitely increased demand that legalization would bring. so it would ultimately become a mass black market operation. also, most of the prosecution for other drugs are based off weed. 1g of mdma = 500 g of weed. 1g of coke = whatever. i dont have the book in front of me but you get the idea. america already has a problem with the term "medical treatment" weed poses the biggest threat to that i think because its the safest recreational drug out there but also one of the most effective drugs for some of the most deadly diseases. that doesnt make sense to most people. the prison system and all the profits/programs centered from that as well. the war on drugs touches a very large part of our economy directly and indirectly. making weed legal would destroy all that.
http://clear-uk.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/TaxUKCan.pdf This is for the UK, but take a read, it's a piece of fucking art.
Let's not forget hemp diesel oil or ethanol could power the entire USA and end reliance on foreign oil if we grew it on 6% of our soil. Multi-trillion industry for sure.
all the smart people of the world will move here leaving the fundies and dipshits to the rest of the world.
In the short term, I actually believe outright legalization will be a massive deathblow to our economy. But in the end will net huge, positive changes over time. I'll explain: Big Pharma, and the liquor industry, all the textile industries, paper industries, and even food industries will all be majorly affected. -Big Pharma makes most of it's profits off simple things like aspirin, pepto bismul, antacids, cold/flu relief and then cross selling those products to treat the side effects of basically every drug. Those massive massive massive profits at least partially fund some small amount of research so that Big Pharma can develop new drugs/antibiotics/etc. That all stops when MJ becomes a viable easily reproduced alternative that doesn't have side effects. Big Pharma becomes mostly insolvent. Government bailout is required. Bailouts finally result in full blown govt run healthcare system, like every other gdamn civilized country in the world. -Liquor industry takes a huge hit.... counterbalanced by the huge ramp up in fast foot business and the MJ related industries. -Textile/paper/food/building material manufacturers all go bankrupt (or at least take a huge blow) against a superior product that is far cheaper to produce, and at less cost to environment. The downsides here are mostly related to how our economy has evolved over the past 90 some years since hemp/cannabis where made illegal. Our products/industries haven't had to compete against it in so long, that many simple won't be able to... and will go bankrupt. Such change is fine (and probably preferred) in the long term, but it will assuredly come with some short term pain economically.
The most beneficial aspect of legalization would be the better usage of our tax dollars that would otherwise be spent on innocent people who are in prison for having a little bud.
i mean come on!!!! OK , so it's legal ,how many of you closet growers out there are gonna come forword on your own.. to pay tax's on that shit?..think about it.
interesting... $9 billion dollars worth of taxes spent on prohibition doesn't hurt us at all Legalization would open up a whole new market, like that of alcohol and tobacco, but it would be better since people would need pipes and bongs and all that good paraphernalia stuff. Plus the endless possibilities of hemp... I wont shed a tear if Big Pharma are in any way significantly affected by legalization, but with that being said, i don't think they need to worry about not making billions... The economy will adapt after it's legalized, keeping marijuana illegal bc of possible adverse effects to companies if it was legalized is like a bailout, that's just bullshit if you ask me. Only a small percentage of people would grow their own, the general public who would enjoy a smoke session every now and then wont bother. We on GC love the herb more than the majority of people.
[quote name='"ddemn"']your all idiots...legalization can only hurt us...think about marijuana is already the biggest cash crop in the us...what we need advertiseing? cuz that's all legalization would be good for,i live in the only state where it's cool to grow 12 full grown plants and have a 1/4 lb of processed weed...you know why it's still legal here?......because we don't go marching in the fu--in streets with this shit...we don't crusade , so we are safe.[/quote] You would benefit greatly from a BA101 class.
You are the next worst thing to a cartels hired murderers. You advocate for continued murder, rape and pillage of the Mexican people. You advocate adding to the 20,000,000 American citizens who have already had their freedoms trampled by marijuana prohibition. People like you are the common enemy of MY people. You are a human cancer. Please, post more of your evil here. It serves only to strengthen our resolve. Your selfishness gives us all a clear example of what we are fighting against. Everyone serves as an example, either of what to be or what not to be. You have served exceptionally well in this.
Cannabis shouldn't be taxed by growing it yourself. It should have normal tax if sold in stores. As for benefiting our economy, one way it would benefit is by not enforcing prohibition of cannabis. Its expensive to pay law enforcement and prisons. That would be a huge cut. I think businesses should be allowed to sell cannabis and tax it like normal products. I think people shouldn't smoke it in public areas where children are so fines could increase city revenues (not that it would be significant). Hemp could create more businesses and jobs. Not only to harvest it but to process and create products. Legalization will not hurt us. It may hurt tobacco, alcohol, logging and pharmaceutical corporations but I really don't give a fuck about them.