The Ills of Marijuana Prohibition in America - Research Paper Example

The Ills of Marijuana Prohibition in America Today, close to one-hundred million Americans admit to having tried marijuana and close to fifteen million say they have tried it within the past month. Marijuana is the leading cash crop in the United States, surpassing the value of corn and wheat combined. So why is prohibition such a desirable policy? Prohibition is an abdication of policy making, leaving an otherwise popular commodity to the problems and vagaries of contraband markets. In a country where alcohol and tobacco products are legal and taxed by all levels of government, what are the common sense, social, economic, public health, and safety reasons not to legally control marijuana in the same manner as other so-called “vice” products? Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances available and is actually less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco, and most prescription medication. “Advocates of marijuana prohibition argue that it reduces marijuana trafficking and use, thereby discouraging crime, improving productivity, and enhancing public health. Critics counter that prohibition has only modest effects on trafficking and use and causes many problems typically attributed to marijuana itself.” By any rational analysis, marijuana should be legalized in a tax regulated market to produce billion in tax revenues, eliminate billions in government expenditures, treat patients suffering from illnesses, and reduce the violence concomitant with prohibition. The latest survey data of the Department of Health and Human Services for 1991 indicates that nearly 10 million Americans are regular users; about 20 million are occasional users, and more than one-third of the population age 12 and over have experimented with the drug. The demand for marijuana has created a multi-billion dollar industry, and as of 1992, it is the nation's leading cash crop (Gettman 2007). Using conservative price estimates derived from federal surveys, domestic marijuana production has a value of $35.8 billion, more than corn and wheat combined, easily making it America’s largest and most lucrative cash crop. Analyzing the size and scope of any black market presents of a number of difficulties in that participants have vested interest in obscuring their activities. The marijuana market is no exception. Activists on both sides of the issue may be quick to estimate the size of the market, yet the partisan nature of the debate calls into question the plausibility of the numbers. Consequently, these estimates should be used as baselines from which to assess the impact of possible policy prescriptions. According to estimates by Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron, replacing marijuana prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation would save between $10 billion and $14 billion per year in reduced government spending and increased tax revenues (Gettman 2007).12 Another researcher recently estimated that the revenue lost from our failure to tax the marijuana industry could be as high as $31 billion! Based on a retail price of $7.87 a gram, a pound of marijuana is worth $3,570 and the commodity is worth $7,871,480 per metric ton. At this price the annual supply of 14,349 mt of marijuana available in the United States is worth $112.9 billion. A more accurate estimation of lost tax revenue can be acquired through examination of current levels of government revenue as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The diversion of funds into the illicit market in marijuana costs government $31.1 billion in tax revenue annually (Gettman 2007). Local, state, and the federal government receive 28.7% of the GDP in tax revenue. If the money spent on marijuana were instead spent on legal goods, it would add $112.9 billion to the GDP, producing $11.6 billion in revenue to state and local governments, $7.2 billion to the federal government in social security and other social insurance premiums, and $12.2 billion in other federal tax revenue. Marijuana Prohibition results in the creative destruction of $31.1 billion in tax revenue. By taxing the sale of marijuana, governments create a viable and consistent revenue source and a system of monitoring incorporated businesses that grows or sells marijuana. The ideal structure and implementation of a marijuana regulation regime will depend on the type of regulation adopted by the government. Without any sort of a generally accepted regulatory model, it is only reasonable to set basic parameters on a marijuana taxation policy. A focus should be placed on eliminating the black market economy and its associated criminal violence. The tax placed on marijuana must be high enough to discourage profligate drug use, but low enough to eliminate profitable sales outside the legal distribution network. This can be achieved with an excise tax. As opposed to other tax structures, excise taxes have functioned well with alcohol and tobacco markets. An excise tax can be designed to easily balance government revenues with a focus on controlling consumption and minimizing the intrusion of black market sources. Moreover, a tax on quantity is straightforward in design, easy to measure, and therefore relatively easy to collect. Enforcing marijuana prohibition costs taxpayers an estimated $10 billion annually and results in the arrest of more than 847,000 individuals per year -- far more than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault. In 2004 total US expenses on the criminal justice system (police protection, the judiciary, and corrections) totaled $193.5 billion (Gettman 2007). The cost allocation employed by the ONDCP report on the costs of drug abuse is to calculate the cost of drug law enforcement by using the percentage of drug arrests. In 2004 marijuana arrests accounted for 5.5% of all arrests. Consequently marijuana arrests cost taxpayers $10.7 billion in 2004. In 1972, a Congressional commission called the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse completed one of the most comprehensive reviews of marijuana and public policy ever conducted. Then-President Richard Nixon appointed the members, and their report proclaimed that marijuana use does not represent a major public health threat (Health 2010). The commission unequivocally recommended Congress and state legislatures decriminalize the use and casual distribution of marijuana for personal use. By right, marijuana should be legalized. It should be legalized for both individual health and public health reasons. Marijuana should be legalized for individual health reasons. Cannabis is good medicine. Marijuana is an effective treatment and pain reliever for a number of illnesses. It provides health benefits to patients suffering from illnesses such as AIDS, cancer, muscular sclerosis, and glaucoma. Patients that use cannibanoids show improved immune function, and they also gain weight (McAdoo 2007). Marijuana relieves certain types of pain as well as nausea, vomiting and other symptoms experienced by patients fighting multiple sclerosis, cancer, or AIDS or taking chemotherapy. Compared to other drugs, marijuana is remarkably safe. It is less toxic than many medications doctors prescribe daily (McAdoo 2007). As with any medical regimen, there should be concerns about side effects, but daily marijuana use does not appear to cause long term neurological damage (Kirchheimer 2003). Nevertheless, smoking marijuana may lead to lung cancer which should be studies carefully (Armentano 2008). Furthermore, marijuana may possess anticancer qualities. Cannabinoids in particular show anticancer activity. They may even represent a new type of anti-cancer drug that limits cancerous growth, the formation of new blood vessels to feed tumors, and the spread of cancer cells to other parts of the body (Armentano 2006). Nevertheless there are Minimal health effects compared to legal intoxicants, and there are other methods of ingesting marijuana derivative as medication to mitigate the occurrence of possible illnesses resulting from smoking it. Marijuana should be legalized for public health reasons. No deaths have ever been attributed marijuana use (“Deaths” 2010). Legalizing marijuana would eliminate the violence and adulterated product that is part and parcel of the marijuana prohibition. Prohibition funds organized crime and terrorism. Organized crime syndicates, both domestic and abroad, earn billions of dollars per year through black market distribution of marijuana and other drugs. Terrorist organizations also take their cut of the drug trade either through actual participation or by extorting drug syndicates (Berman 2007). Prohibition also enables sale of adulterated products. Prohibition precludes regulation, thereby increasing danger to the consuming public. For example, dealers in Germany were adding lead particles to bags of marijuana in order to increase the weight and charge more for lesser quantities of marijuana. This resulted in lead poisoning in 95 out of 145 persons that sought anonymous testing (Busse et. al. 2008). The failure of the government to effectively control marijuana is simply a waste of resources. Untold billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent by the government since 1937 to both enforce and prolong marijuana prohibition; meanwhile, over 19 million people have been arrested since 1965 that includes 830,000 marijuana-related arrests in 2006 89 percent of which were simple possession charges. About 45,000 to 65,000 marijuana-only prisoners are currently incarcerated in the United States. There are more marijuana arrests annually than arrests for all violent crimes combined. It seems marijuana has become a scapegoat for a martial state. Legislatures seem to be paying for law enforcement through marijuana prohibition. There does not seem to be any logical reason for marijuana to be illegal otherwise. As such, the moral and economic imperatives are clear in seeking logical and pragmatic alternatives to prohibition. (“Marijuana” 2010). The fact is that our government has failed in marijuana control even after demanding mandatory minimum sentences and civil forfeiture as well as engaging in ineffective school campaigns such as DARE and high-tech interdiction methods. Border control overtly discriminates against patients who possess a physician's recommendation to use medical marijuana and American farmers who without prohibition would cultivate and prosper from the production of hemp. As such, it's worth it to ask: why not adopt low-tech but otherwise effective control mechanisms such as tax stamps and other government controls similar to currently controlled alcohol and tobacco products (Dubner 2007)? The answer seems to be simple. The established power structure has too much to lose in dollars. In other words, policy-makers are making a buck at the expense of the quality of life and well-being of citizens. It is downright appalling. By right, marijuana should be legalized. It should be legalized for both individual health and public health reasons. The reason marijuana is illegal is purely political. Chomsky argues that marijuana was made illegal and kept illegal as a method of oppressing immigrant Mexicans and lower class blacks. Furthermore, industries such as paper and textiles lobby to keep it illegal because it makes paper more effectively than wood and canvas more effectively than wool. It seems despicable that in this day an age such a travesty could exist in America. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within a supervised routine of medical care. For marijuana to be illegal in the United States when alcohol poisoning is a major cause of death in this country and approximately 400,000 premature deaths are attributed to cigarettes annually. Marijuana has been illegal under federal law ever since 1937, and the federal government continues to spell it "marihuana" and classify it as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, right alongside heroin, opium, morphine, LSD, and ecstasy. References Armentano, P. (2006, February 15). Cannabinoids as Cancer Hope - NORML. Marijuana Law Reform - NORML. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6814 Armentano, P. (2008, January 30). Cannabis Smoke and Cancer: Assessing the Risk - NORML. Marijuana Law Reform - NORML. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6891 Berman, U. (2007, February 23). Honest Argument - Node: Prohibition funds organized crime and terrorism. Honest Argument Home - Collaborative Argument Diagramming. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://honestargument.com/argnode/331 Busse, F., Omidi, L., Timper, K., Leichtle, A., Windgassen, M., Kluge, E., et al. (n.d.). NEJM -- Lead Poisoning Due to Adulterated Marijuana. The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on Diseases & Clinical Practice. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/358/15/1641 Deaths from Marijuana v. 17 FDA-Approved Drugs - Medical Marijuana - ProCon.org. (n.d.). Medical Marijuana ProCon.org. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000145 Dubner, S. J. (2007, October 30). On the Legalization — or Not — of Marijuana - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com. Opinion - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/on-the-legalization-or-not-of-marijuana Gettman, J. (2007). Budgetary Impact Due to the Diversion of Funds to the Illicit Marijuana Market. Marijuana Research: Science, Law, Medical Marijuana, Rescheduling Petition. Retrieved June 18, 2010, from http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr4/6Fiscal.html Health Reports - NORML. (n.d.). Marijuana Law Reform - NORML. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3471 Kirchheimer, S. (2003, July 1). Heavy Marijuana Use Doesn't Damage Brain. WebMD - Better information. Better health. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20030701/heavy-marijuana-use-doesnt-damage-brain Marijuana Prohibition Facts. (n.d.). Marijuana Policy Project. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from www.mpp.org/assets/pdfs/download-materials/MJ_ProhibFacts092008.pdf McAdoo, C. (2007, February 12). Study finds marijuana effective. Fog City Journal. Retrieved June 17, 2010, from www.fogcityjournal.com/news_in_brief/bcn_aids_mj_study_070212.shtml Read More