Regulating Cannabis Sales Could Yield Over $17 Billion In Annual Savings And Revenue

[topspin]

Marijuana Law Reform - NORML

Regulating Cannabis Sales Could Yield Over $17 Billion In Annual Savings And Revenue, New Study Says
Wed, 29 Sep 2010 20:30:49 By: Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director
Share This Article Treating marijuana as a legally regulated commodity would yield some $17.4 billion dollars annually in cost savings and new tax revenue, according to an economic report published yesterday by the CATO Institute think tank in Washington, DC.

The report, entitled “The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition,” estimates that taxing the commercial sale of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol would generate some $8.7 billion in annual revenue. The report further estimates that abolishing marijuana prohibition would additionally yield approximately $9 billion in annual law enforcement savings. Full text of the entire report is available for download here.

A previous 2005 study commissioned by NORML estimated that marijuana law enforcement cost taxpayers some $7.6 billion per year.

A separate California statewide analysis published in 2009 by the state Board of Equalization and Taxation estimated that imposing retail taxes on the commercial sale of cannabis in California would yield approximately $1.4 billion in yearly revenue.

An op/ed in favor of legalization by the CATO study’s co-author, Jeffrey Miron of Harvard University, appears in today’s Los Angeles Times here.

 

[xotoxi]

There would be a definite law enforcement savings, however because of the fact that people can quite easily grow it themselves, there wouldn't be as much tax income as you might think.

 

[topspin]

I'll go with the economist on this one. And compare it to beer and cigs, people can brew and grow thier own. They don't because it's a hassle. Do some brew? Yes will some grow? Yes
Tax collections will still be in the billions.

 

[Mad Scientist]

There wouldn't be any Law Enforcement savings because they'll just shift those resources into going after something else. You think any state or federal agency is going to do with less?

Plus, governments will just throw that money down a rat hole. You dopers are really stupid if you think legalization is gonna solve any problems at all. It'll only make it worse.

 

[topspin]

really cause no local governement are cutting any budgets anywhere. LOL
looks like the dopers are more astute than the mad clown

 

[Mad Scientist]

I'm certain you'll enjoy your expensive government weed with all the "dangerous thc" removed. It's for the children you know.

Suckers every one of you.

 

[topspin]

wow your a clown, the gov is going to remove thc. good one

 

[Yurt]

i've been saying this for over a decade...

its stupid to keep marijuana illegal....it costs our system BILLIONS to "house" them in prisons, enforce the ridiculous law that has never once stopped the growth of marijuana partakers

for a nation that utterly failed at prohibition, one wonders why in the hell our politicians are so afraid to legalize marijuana when alcohol has far more damaging effects on our society

 

[Mr. Shaman]

There would be a definite law enforcement savings, however because of the fact that people can quite easily grow it themselves, there wouldn't be as much tax income as you might think.

Yeah.....allowing people to make-their-own is really killin' Budweiser.



MOST people will settle for buying their "vices" at the corner-store (and pay whatever taxes that result).

If the laws for marijuana parallel the laws for beer & wine (Grow your own; NO SALES!), everything will work-out, just fine.​

 

[Mad Scientist]

Gubamint said we would save money with National Heathcare too. You DUmmies believed it.

Now you wanna' believe that legalization will solve the drug problem, it won't. It will only empower gubamint. You dopers have it all backwards.

 

[topspin]

I bet your education is as deep as your responses Mad GED

 

[G.T.]

I wonder what they're going to do with retro-active prisoners.

 

[topspin]

they should let them out and lay off 20% of the big governement tit sucking guards.

 

[dilloduck]

The lengths people need to go to to alter the consciousness is amazing. Why don't you try learning how to do it without pot ? Too lazy ?

 

[topspin]

The lengths people need to go to to alter the consciousness is amazing. Why don't you try learning how to do it without pot ? Too lazy ?

why dont you not worry about what other people do, are you on them about drinking beer too?

 

[California Girl]

The lengths people need to go to to alter the consciousness is amazing. Why don't you try learning how to do it without pot ? Too lazy ?

I wish I understood some people's obsessional need to hide from reality.

 

[topspin]

another small gov teabag poser

 

[Mr. Shaman]

I'll go with the economist on this one. And compare it to beer and cigs, people can brew and grow thier own. They don't because it's a hassle. Do some brew? Yes will some grow? Yes
Tax collections will still be in the billions.

ABSOLUTELY!!!!!!

Hell.....the $aving$, from not prosecuting (arrests & imprisonment) for possession, ALONE, is gonna make people wonder WHY IT TOOK SO LONG to (finally) end Prohibition.

Face the facts "conservatives"/Yuppie$.....this is ANOTHER WIN(!) (for the Hippies), in our on-going Culture War.

*

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1gYf5ZZ7NU&feature=related]YouTube - Flashback - crying scene[/ame]​

 

[Wry Catcher]

There wouldn't be any Law Enforcement savings because they'll just shift those resources into going after something else. You think any state or federal agency is going to do with less?

Plus, governments will just throw that money down a rat hole. You dopers are really stupid if you think legalization is gonna solve any problems at all. It'll only make it worse.

Worse, how?
Seems to me MJ presents many dangers to minors, one being their need to come within a degree or two of the criminal element which distributes MJ today. A regulated product produced and distributed under the regulation of ABC makes sense.
Kids will use MJ, that is a given. The sale or furnishing of MJ to a minor will remain a crime and as will the cultivation of MJ without complying with whatever regulatons the state imposes.
A black market will exist, but it does anyway. Money will be saved by police agencies, public defenders, probation agencies and the courts and jails; those who violate the new regulations will pay fines & PA's, combined with savings and partially used to provide treatment for those whose AOD (alcohol & Other Drug use) becomes a problem Money too will be avialble for education, for teens and tweens need to know that MJ does inhibit brain development.
A straight forward approach to a health curriculum is needed and might be funded by such savings and fees. Of course that presupposes schools get their head out of the sand and begin to teach life skills. Since today they cannot successfully teach kids to read and comprehend, compute, speak publicly or think critically - but I digress, that is for another thread.

 

[xotoxi]

I'll go with the economist on this one. And compare it to beer and cigs, people can brew and grow thier own. They don't because it's a hassle. Do some brew? Yes will some grow? Yes
Tax collections will still be in the billions.

I'm willing to bet that it's easier to grow marijuana than it is to brew beer.

But you do have an excellent point.