Marijuana for a Moment

Democratic delegate to Maryland’s House of Delegates Curt Anderson introduced a bill this past Thursday that seeks to legalize marijuana for those 21 years of age and older and to tax it much like Maryland taxes alcohol. There are also plans in the bill to legalize wholesale, retail, and testing facilities. The tax on wholesale marijuana would go to support substance abuse programs and clinical research into medical marijuana. And despite the fact North Carolina recently struck down a bill legalizing medical marijuana in the state, support on a national level has been growing to legalize the drug.

My views on the legalization of marijuana are relatively impartial. I have no plans to use the drug, legal or not. Not that I have never tried the substance, my youthly indiscretions led me to the substance several times, sorry Mom. But the reality is it’s just not something I have ever really enjoyed. On the other hand, it is becoming increasingly hard to deny the financial problems that the restrictions on marijuana use have caused and at least the faint potential for the benefits legalization could bring.

Law enforcement arrests nearly 700,000 individuals a year for marijuana related offenses. That is more than all other illicit drugs combined, including cocaine, methamphetamines, ecstasy, and heroine. 87% of those arrests are for nothing more than possession of small amounts. Many would argue that almost no one goes to jail or prison for petty possession, but what about offenders on probation or parole who test positive with a dirty UA, or instances of the three strikes law, for example in Alabama three petty possessions could lead you to 15 years in prison. When you begin to factor in all the potential costs for each one of those arrests, not just costs of incarceration, you can begin to understand the full taxpayer cost of keeping marijuana on the list of illicit drugs.

Forget for a moment that legalizing marijuana would simply save this country millions of dollars each year, and think of the money to be made. When you buy a pack of cigarettes, here in tobacco country USA could be between $3 and $5 a pack, approximately 40% of the retail cost of that pack of cigarettes goes to the government. So, for the sake of argument, let’s say after taxes a “dime bag” costs $10 after tax. If we charge the same tax rates as we do for cigarettes, we are now making $4 after every sale as opposed to paying $80 a day per inmate for locking them up for it. For many of us, it seems like a no brainer.

The bigger issue here has nothing to do with the costs or the money to be made. At its foundation, the legalization of marijuana is a cultural decision. Much like other criminal justice issues, there comes a point in any society when certain issues and acts now seem less immoral than when the original laws were created, and vice versa. We have to decide as a society if we truly believe marijuana use is really that big of a deal. Consensus so far is no we don’t.

LH