Back in the good old days when I used to smoke a bit of reefer (I developed glaucoma at a young age), I paid about $40 an ounce for a bag of decent Mexican weed. Out of that forty dollars I figure about $10 went into the pocket of the dealer, another ten went into the dealer's supplier's pocket and the rest of the money found its circuitous way back to Mexico.
At the time, in the early 70s, there was an epidemic of glaucoma in the USA and there were literally millions of folks who had to smoke reefer to gain some relief from the affliction. That meant that there were millions of $40 transactions taking place every week. That also meant that a lot of money was going into the dealers' pockets and a huge amount of money was flowing back to Mexico.
But not one cent went into the coffers of the United States government. In fact, the government was actually losing billions of dollars trying the suppress the marijuana trade.
As I understand it, the price of marijuana has skyrocketed over the years. The same bag that cost me $40 now sells for several hundred. Yet, the government still does not make a penny from this multi-billion dollar business.
It is estimated that marijuana is California's largest cash crop. Yet California - which is in the throes of a terrible budget crisis, and has to borrow money from the feds just to maintain basic civic services - refuses to even consider legalizing and taxing marijuana. This strikes me, and quite a few other commentators, as the height of fiduciary irresponsibility.
The government taxes and regulates tobacco, alcohol and gambling. Why can't they tax and regulate marijuana? Let the potheads help pay the salaries of our city and state employees. Then we might hear conversations like this:
Cop: Did you know you were going the wrong way down a one-way street?
Driver: (giggling) Didn't realize it, officer.
Cop: Young man, are you stoned?
Driver: Chill, dude, who do you think is paying your salary?
Cop: Ah, sorry boss. Didn't mean to inconvenience you.
I won't even try to argue the ethical, moral or health issues of marijuana, but from a strictly economical viewpoint, the continued prohibition on marijuana makes no sense. It is a costly, ineffective program that has proven to be a complete failure. Marijuana is as popular as ever. It is a multi-billion dollar business with the potential to bring in billions of tax dollars. I just don't get it.
While I'm at it, I'd like to propose the legalization of all drugs. Legalize everything - coke, heroin, meth, crack, cough syrup, model airplane glue, banana peels - everything.
Alarmists might say I'm crazy: Milo, are you nuts? The streets would be crawling with depraved junkies.
I say, So fucking what? The streets are already crawling with junkies. I doubt if the number will increase just because drugs become legal. A certain percentage of the population will always be drug addicts. Oh, there might be a spike in useage at first, but once the novelty wears off people will come to their senses.
Besides, there's nothing as harmless as a junkie when he's loaded. They pass their days staring at TV, dozing or picking lint from their belly buttons. Junkies only become dangerous when they don't have any junk. That's when they break into your home, rob you on the street or commit senseless murders.
I say let the junkies register in a national addict program, then they can visit their MD, get a prescription, walk down to their neighborhood Osco and pick up their drug of choice. It works with methadone programs, and it will work with other drug programs.
Besides reaping huge amounts of tax dollars, legalizing drugs will have added benefits.
With the stroke of the legislative pen we could empty our prisons, which are filled with people serving time for drug-related offenses and costing taxpayers billions yearly in upkeep. We could break the power of the narco states in South America and Asia. Terrorists who rely on drug money to finance their schemes will have to get day jobs. The Mexican border gangs, who have created their own mini-states along the Rio Grande, will fade away.
If history has proven anything, it's that vice can't be stopped. Prohibition is the prime example. Did people quit drinking liquor because the government banned it? The only thing Prohibition did was to enrich organized gangs and entrench them in society, so that even now, 90 years after Prohibition was enacted, mobsters are still a force to be reckoned with. Had it not been for Prohibition, mobsters would never have been anything but a historical footnote in American history. No Godfather, no Goodfellas, no Untouchables.
Let the good times roll!
