Pubdate: Sat, 27 Apr 2013
Source: London Free Press (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 The London Free Press
Contact: http://www.lfpress.com/comment/letters/write/
Website: http://www.lfpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/243
Author: Michel Kelly-Gagnon
Page: 43

MAKE MONEY WITH POT, NOT LOSE IT ON WAR

Are we about to see the end of the war on drugs?

Following ballot measures last November, producing and selling
marijuana are now legal in both Colorado and Washington state. Several
other U.S. states have decriminalized simple possession of marijuana,
or allowed its medical usage. The latter is also the case in Canada.

The financial consequences of a complete and general legalization
across the continent would certainly be huge.

Over the past couple of decades, billions of dollars have been spent
fighting this unwinnable war, which has fuelled corruption, organized
crime, and violence. Thousands of people are killed in drug fights
every year in Mexico. In Canada and the U.S., it has justified growing
government intrusion in commercial and private life, from the
money-laundering bureaucracies to civil forfeiture laws.

Despite this, recreational use of drugs is as popular as
ever.

The simple economic fact is that when there is a demand, a supply will
be forthcoming -- legally or illegally. We should therefore reconcile
ourselves with what economists call "consumer sovereignty," that is,
let people consume what they want, and let's prosecute only real crimes.

>From an economic perspective, it would be a lot more profitable for
everyone if we stopped wasting resources trying to suppress this
trade, and instead let it develop legitimately and have governments
regulate and tax it. I don't like taxes, but in that case, that would
mean a huge improvement in terms of economic efficiency.

In British Columbia only, where a lot of marijuana is illicitly being
grown, legalization could generate $2.5 billion in government tax and
licensing revenues over five years, according to a recent research
paper from Simon Fraser University.

Both the Wall Street Journal and The Economist have been convincingly
arguing for many years against the war on drugs. And for the first
time in more than four decades of polling on the issue, a majority of
Americans now favour legalizing the use of marijuana. In Canada,
public support has also been high for several years.

My point is not that drug consumption is a good thing or that I
encourage it, but merely that any rational person can see that the
current policy has not been a success despite all the money spent and
all the people jailed. It is high time we rethink our strategy in this
regard. Let's end the war on pot and make money with it instead.

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Michel Kelly-Gagnon is president of the Montreal Economic Institute
(www.iedm.org). The views reflected in this column are his own.
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MAP posted-by: Matt