Marijuana Policy Has Helped to Doom California

[FourScore]

Marijuana Policy Has Helped to Doom California
by Setrak
Tue Feb 17, 2009 at 06:53:36 AM PST

Furloughs for some state workers. Pink slips for others. Mass release of inmates. A whopping budget deficit that seems insurmountable. All the elements to create a vicious cycle, even with federal intervention. There are many reasons for why California is in the poor shape that it is. That goes for many states. Yet the problems of California seem especially daunting. While there is no single reason for why this is, there is one reason that has largely remained out of the economic debate but is quietly cropping up everywhere. I speak, of course, of marijuana. Known to be the top crop in at least 12 states, with a trend-line that suggests it will continue to be for some time.

The prohibition of marijuana is draining many state budgets, but especially that of California.

In October of 2007, the Economist noted that marijuana has rapidly become a homegrown commodity that is far different from the imported-marijuana that many still assume makes up the majority in this country. It is more potent, and thus each plant yields far more cash. If you took just the plants that were confiscated in California in 2006, which likely makes up no more than 5%-10% of the home-grown plants and does not include the ready-for-use tagged and bagged product, there is more value there than in the 2006 yield from the entire Californian wine industry. We are talking about billions upon billions of dollars in tax revenue that is missed by the state of California. This is just California, not the other states rapidly producing marijuana, and not the federal government which suffers as a result of the states' suffering.

Where does money go when it is used to buy marijuana? It goes into the black market. Some taxes catch the marijuana industry, but as it is of the black market, the industry largely evades these taxes. The workers raising and producing the crops are not protected. The dealers and their crime-lords are the biggest winners from the current situation in California's marijuana situation. The War on Drugs has largely failed because it encompasses too much. A successful War on Drugs is an impossibility, but we can do a lot of good against organized crime by draining the black market dry. We can also do better against the harder, more addictive drugs, if our War on Drugs has more focus and a leaner set of goals.

Even some conservatives like Kathleen Parker see that the current situation is unsustainable. There are more and more people who see the legal and economic benefits of not decriminalizing marijuana, which does nothing but "turn a blind eye", but to legalize marijuana. Can we expect such a change in thought to creep into Washington? It's highly doubtful. No matter what studies and reports come out showing the crazy trend of marijuana production in this country, there will be conservatives who use it as a bludgeon in 2010 and especially 2012. That's why California's suffering seems ready to go the distance.

Forget about the fact that regulating marijuana will make it much more difficult for children to smoke. There is a reason why you don't have "boot-leggers" inside of schools, while there are plenty of friends with weed. Forget about the fact that marijuana is not anymore addictive than computer use and less harmful than alcohol. Forget about the medicinal and textile uses of marijuana. Forget about how much more efficient it is for harvest than trees in regards to paper production. And forget about all of those other uses for it. Just face the cold-hard numbers; marijuana reform is desperately needed, just as the ending of Prohibition was desperately needed during the Great Depression. We need to end this policy, as it has only favored the captains of the black market.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/2/17/93127/2891/234/698455

[Renew Deal]

1. The sudden "Marijuana will save us" argument cracks me up.

All of a sudden weed is the answer to all of our problems. The state should be able to run without marijuana tax money. The state(s) should concentrate on solving their budget problems.

[Occulus]

6. See, it's that sort of one-dimensional thinking that helps keep it illegal

If you stop and think about how much is being spent by each state on the prohibition of cannabis, it really is a lot: police raids, food stamps from families who have lost their primary breadwinner, ancillary crime associated with giving people arrest records which, in the current economy, essentially brand them as "unemployable", costs of prosecutions and sentences to jail, prison, or compulsory treatment programs in cases in which treatment is not necessary...

...and all the tax dollars wasted as a result...

the decriminalization and taxation of cannabis really would at the least save us money, if not actually generate some badly-needed cash.

It really isn't all that hard to figure out.

[Renew Deal]

8. I get that, but that has nothing to do with the fact that states are blowing their budgets.

I understand your argument, but I don't think it has anything to do with the situation we're in. Let's say we decriminalize or legalize weed. That will save some money right? There might actually even be revenue. But how are they going to balance the rest of he budget? That's the question!

[FourScore]

13. Of course they still need to balance their budget.

The two issues, legalization of pot and a balanced budget, are not mutually exclusive, and no one here is suggesting that they are.

We're only saying it is time for the state to reap some tax dollars from it's number one cash crop. Not to mention empty the prisons of all those evil pot smokers.

[Occulus]

14. Ah, I think I understand now

The idea that any one single solution can be a magic bullet for the state's entire budget crisis is absurd on its face.

However, it is an undeniable fact that decriminalizing cannabis will, by some measure, help. 75,000 people were sent to jail for marijuana-related crimes in 2007 alone. During the previous year, nationwide, more than ten times that number were arrested. The money spent on their prosecutions, incarcerations, and ancillary "treatment" programs, combined with the loss of direct taxpayer income from those people, and added to the state aid (where applicable) given to those pushed into poverty by the loss of the primary income for those families cannot possibly be a trivial amount of cash.

I've no idea where to start to actually calculate the exact dollar amount, but it has to be quite a bit.

[eShirl]

9. nothing sudden about it at all

[opihimoimoi]

2. Them Pubs will fight tooth and nail to stop legalization....until it can be proven that its better

than Viagra but fatal to diets....

[Lance_Boyle]

10. Dems are really no better *at all* on this issue n/t

[madrchsod]

3. duh...want to solve the problem

legalize production of pot for personal up to a certain amount then tax/regulate those who want to sell pot like small winery and beer brewers.

[Xithras]

4. There's just one problem with these arguments.

Marijuana is a profitable crop specifically BECAUSE it's illegal. When pot is legalized, it's production will be moved from tinfoil-lined closets and remote forests into vast modern farms and industrial drying facilities similar to those currently used for tobacco. Using large scale production techniques, the price of pot will fall through the floor...a pack of joints will probably cost no more than a pack of cigarrettes.

And taxing those joints will contribute no more to the tax base than those smokes will.

[Lance_Boyle]

11. producers will charge what the market will bear

The market currently bears some ridiculously high prices for a weed. My guess is that it would stratify into price/grades, like wine (from Ripple to the snooty stuff).

[mike_c]

5. marijuana production is the basis for my norcal county's economy....

Mostly very small scale, indoor grows. I'm of mixed mind about legalization-- I sorely want it to happen, but I know those small producers that are the backbone of our local economy will tank very quickly if marijuana is legalized.

On the other hand, even if legalized, small scale indoor production will remain just as hard to police as it is today, so folks growing for their own consumption-- tax free-- will always have a pretty easy time of it.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Isn't California swimming in money?

It's still got more money than most countries.

Seems to me that California's problems are ones of mismanagement. Marijuana policy only being a small part.

[havocmom]

12. Also a huge state, both in population and area. Takes $$ to keep up the infrastructure

and provide mandated services.

[Tsiyu]

15. Those who refuse to consider legalization

live in an irrational dream state. They are the 2008 Temperance League, standing in solidarity with corrupt, inhumane, costly cannabis policy.

They may be people who consider themselves immune to propaganda, but they buy the "Demon Weed" propaganda and eat it up like little children.

I am continually amazed at their lack of logic or common sense.

There's not much you can do for them. Or do to reach them. They WANT to waste the money, waste the lives and continue spewing the lies.

I can't understand it but i can call their though processes what they are:

Childish, illogical, superstitious and regressive.