It's Good For The Flu. It's Good For Asthma . . . Even Umara Composis Posted by Michael Cohen

Since I attended more than 30 Grateful Dead concerts as a teenager and college student I worry that I have even less credibility than most in recommending Aaron Houston's excellent piece on the benefits of legalizing marijuana over at Foreign Policy.com. (Honestly, I went for the music).

This is part of the problem with talking about legalization of pot; there is a general assumption that those making it have a, how shall we say, vested interest.  But as Houston points out the question of legalizing marijuana has serious public policy implications that are rarely considered.

Take the situation in Mexico today, where drug gang violence has led to the deaths of more than 7,000 people since January 2008. Sixty percent of the profits that drive Mexican drug trafficking comes from marijuana. This has nothing to do with the potency of the drug being discussed, but instead the fact that it's simply an enormous, lucrative and highly profitable market. More than 15 million Americans, per month smoke pot. Quite simply, the problem in the drug war is on the demand side; and its a war that the United States has pretty much no hop of winning.

But what I particularly like about Houston's piece is that he makes the market argument for legalization:

Make marijuana a legal, regulated product like alcohol and tobacco are. After all, there's a reason these gangs aren't smuggling wine grapes. When you have a legal, regulated market for a product, the underground market disappears. Indeed, the United States already has an illustrative example from its own history. During the 13 dark years of alcohol prohibition, drinking didn't stop, but gangsters such as Al Capone got rich. When Prohibition ended, the bootleggers -- and the orgy of violence that accompanied them -- went away. By taking marijuana out of the criminal underground and regulating it, Americans can cut the lifeline that gives Mexican drug gangs their power.

There are benefits for the United States, too. For the first time, regulators would have a level of control over marijuana production and distribution, both of which are impossible under today's system. Over time, the domestic marijuana industry would start to look like California's wine business: a responsible industry that adds to the state's prestige, tourism, and tax coffers, rather than a source of violence and instability.

I'm amused by the idea of Napa Valley tours of pot fields, but hey whatever works. Read the whole piece; it makes a pretty compelling argument that marijuana legalization isn't just for Rastafarians anymore!

Also, it's worth reading Misha Glenny's excellent new book, McMafia who makes an even more compelling case for the futility of the current drug war.

Comments

[Peace]

Another benefit from the legalization of marijauna is the tax revenue it would bring to the states. In Colorado, that state that I live in, the increased revenue by a tax on legalized marijuana would help solve the state's budget crisis. Instead the criminalization of marijauna has only made the budget problem worse by spending money on law enforcement and jails that could have been better spent on education and healthcare.

[Russ Wellen]

Yet another benefit is that regulated U.S. marijuana might apply pesticides and herbicides with a less heavier hand than Mexicans do to their marijuana crop.

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Yet another benefit is that regulated U.S. marijuana might apply pesticides and herbicides with a less heavier hand than Mexicans do to their marijuana crop.

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