High_Gravity
Belligerent Drunk
You are magnifying the costs of prohibition. When someone is arrested for shoplifting and found to be in possession of marijuana, is this a marijuana offense? I wish I had a nickle for every defendant who told me they were arrested because they had a joint on them. Then I find out that although there is a charge of possession, they were really arrested for three armed robberies. If you are keeping statistics for purposes of legalization you will only record arrest for a single joint.
Marijuana prohibition costs us a lot of money. Even if a person gets caught shoplifting and it's found they have marijuana on them, it still counts as extra charges, extra time (on whatever sentence they get), and extra paperwork. That extra year someone gets for "possession" is one full year that we have to pay for that person's food, clothing, housing, ect.
Too, we have entire Federal agencies that dedicate large swaths of time tracking down marijuana dealers, sources, ect, specifically.
Finally, if Marijuana is legalized, think about how much value will be added to our economy via the brand new industry that would be created? Instead of the Cartels keeping all of the revenues, imagine all of the US shipping companies, all of the US marketing companies, all of the US stores, ect that would stand to gain real value from the change in law.
Currently, the Cartels make the largest sums of money and keep that money within Mexico (we're talking Billions every year); wouldn't you like that to instead remain in the US in the hands of non-violent criminals? I would..
Would you say the same thing if it were human trafficking instead of marijuana?
Katz thats totally different things, human trafficking is dealing with people marijuana is a substance.