In today's edition of the Wall Street Journal, famed hedge fund manager and billionaire George Soros wrote an op-ed piece titled, "Why I Support Legal Marijuana." He starts off by writing that, "Our marijuana laws are clearly doing more harm than good," and follows throughout the article with the many reasons why he believes the de-criminilization of it, as currently proposed on California's ballot (Proposition 19), will prove beneficial to taxpayers. Soros believes, as I do, that California will once again lead the nation in this hot-topic debate. He believes, as I do, that if California passes Prop 19 other states will, eventually, learn of the economic benefits that de-criminalizing weed offers and will follow suit. I say once again because it was California that led the charge for the legalization of "medical marijuana" back in 1996 that ultimately saw 14 states to date enact similar laws, allowing for the legal use of medical marijuana.
I am not a pot-head. I just believe, as Soros points out, that so many billions of dollars are spent each year tying up the courts and jails on what I feel are wasteful efforts. Not to mention the dollars and hours spent by law enforcement each year. Their efforts, and funding, could be utilized for more pressing issues in my opinion. I know this argument has been made many times before, but now that a real proposal is on the table for recreational and personal use (not for distribution) I want to publicly support it, as George Soros does. Incidentally Mr. Soros had been a long-time idol of mine for his business acumen, self-made wealth, and his extensive philanthropic endeavors...the guy gives tens of millions of dollars to charities every year. His position on Proposition 19, and his public decleration of it, only strengthens my respect for him.
I have the pros and cons of this one because my friend is a full-supporter of legalizing marijuana and other drugs. On the other hand, I can't bring myself to support it.
ReplyDeletePros-All the wasted money is now being saved. In fact, the tax on the drugs would enable us to regulate the drug successfully. When the alcohol was banned consumption went up - by legalizing marijuana consumption will actually go down.
Cons-Elected officials will actually be allowed to smoke marijuana. The extra money collected from taxes will become a crutch just like cigarette tax has become for many states.
In the past marijuana was legal and Congress did tax it in fact it had its own tax act so it true taxability could be measured from the old data. But before we rush to tax one new item and end spending on prevention, testing, charging, treating, and housing of convict you do need to take a look at the economic effects the end of spending against marijuana would have on items like tax bases in the long term.
ReplyDeleteOften times adding items like sin taxes and new taxes only help in the very short term but are harmful in the long term. And it does create a dependency of government on people continuing with using the product as the same or greater rate. Every state right now relaying on taxes from tobacco products to make ends met is hoping and praying the number of smokers says the same or increases.