Pubdate: Sat, 27 Apr 2013
Source: Beacon Herald, The (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact: http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/letters
Website: http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1459
Author: Michel Kelly-Gagnon
Page: 6

MAKE MONEY WITH POT, NOT 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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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom