April 21, 2012 – April 20 is the counter-culture “holiday” on which lots and lots of people come together to advocate marijuana legalization (or just get high). Should drugs—especially marijuana—be legal? The answer is “yes.” Immediately. Without hesitation. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200 seized in a civil asset forfeiture. The war on drugs has been a dismal failure. It’s high time to end prohibition. Even if you aren’t willing to go whole-hog and legalize all drugs, at the very least we should legalize marijuana.

For the sake of the argument, let’s go ahead and assume that everything you’ve heard about the dangers of drugs is completely true. That probably means that using drugs is a terrible idea. It doesn’t mean, however, that the drug war is a good idea.

Prohibition is a textbook example of a policy with negative unintended consequences. Literally: it’s an example in the textbook I use in my introductory economics classes (Cowen and Tabarrok, Modern Principles of Economics if you’re curious) and in the most popular introductory economics textbook in the world (by N. Gregory Mankiw).The demand curve for drugs is extremely inelastic, meaning that people don’t change their drug consumption very much in response to changes in prices. Therefore, vigorous enforcement means higher prices and higher revenues for drug dealers. In fact, I’ll defer to Cowen and Tabarrok—page 60 of the first edition, if you’re still curious—for a discussion of the basic economic logic:

The more effective prohibition is at raising costs, the greater are drug industry revenues. So, more effective prohibition means that drug sellers have more money to buy guns, pay bribes, fund the dealers, and even research and develop new technologies in drug delivery (like crack cocaine). It’s hard to beat an enemy that gets stronger the more you strike against him or her.

People associate the drug trade with crime and violence; indeed, the newspapers occasionally feature stories about drug kingpins doing horrifying things to underlings and competitors. These aren’t caused by the drugs themselves but from the fact that they are illegal (which means the market is underground) and addictive (which means demanders aren’t very price sensitive).

Those same newspapers will also occasionally feature articles about how this or that major dealer has been taken down or about how this or that quantity of drugs was taken off the streets. Apparently we’re to take from this the idea that we’re going to “win” the war on drugs. Apparently. It’s alleged that this is only a step toward getting “Mister Big,” but even if the government gets “Mister Big,” it’s not going to matter. Apple didn’t disappear after Steve Jobs died. Getting “Mr. Big” won’t win the drug war. As I pointed out almost a year ago, economist and drug policy expert Jeffrey Miron estimates that we would have a lot less violence without a war on drugs.

At the recent Association of Private Enterprise Education conference, David Henderson from the Naval Postgraduate School pointed out the myriad ways in which government promises to make us safer in fact imperil our safety and security. The drug war is an obvious example: in the name of making us safer and protecting us from drugs, we are actually put in greater danger. Without meaning to, the drug warriors have turned American cities into war zones and eroded the very freedoms we hold dear.

Freedom of contract has been abridged in the name of keeping us “safe” from drugs. Private property is less secure because it can be seized if it is implicated in a drug crime (this also flushes the doctrine of “innocent until proven guilty” out the window). The drug war has been used as a pretext for clamping down on immigration. Not surprisingly, the drug war has turned some of our neighborhoods into war zones. We are warehousing productive young people in prisons at an alarming rate all in the name of a war that cannot be won.

Albert Einstein is reported to have said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By this definition, the drug war is insane. We are no safer, and we are certainly less free because of concerted efforts to wage war on drugs. It’s time to stop the insanity and end prohibition. Source.

December 10, 2010 – The drug war has cost Americans over one trillion tax dollars, of that more money has been spent on marijuana crimes than any other drug including methamphetamine, heroin, or cocaine. The lost productivity of the millions of working tax payers devastated, and rendered unemployable, after being convicted of a marijuana crime is costing us billions more. Many who were economic assets have now become economic liabilities of the state — sometimes for life. When the economics and crime considerations created by prohibition are calculated, the true cost of the war on marijuana is astronomical.

Last year over 700,000 Americans were prosecuted for marijuana crimes in the United States, the vast majority for possession. Most of the Americans arrested for marijuana have jobs, pay taxes, and function well in society. After being convicted, many can no longer find good jobs or contribute to the economy or society in the ways they could have. What do you think they will do when faced with survival? Many will be forced onto the rolls of social programs, and others will turn to crime. The war on marijuana is actually creating more of the very problems (and criminals) Americans are so concerned about. Give an American a good job and some hope, and you will find you have less crime, fewer people on public assistance, and you will expand your tax base. It really is not that hard to understand.

The war on marijuana is a civil war with one faction imposing its will at gun point and great cost on the other. You do not have to approve of drug use, to see this is worse than the marijuana. There is more marijuana, it is stronger, and it is cheaper than ever. Furthermore, anyone — even kids — can get it right now. That is the reality of marijuana prohibition. Regulation, and honest education is better.

What have you got for your trillion dollars? For 10% of what it now costs in tax dollars to wage the war on marijuana, you could get a much better result. When you add the benefit of productive Americans instead of economic liabilities, I believe you will get more than your 10% investment back, in taxes and consumer spending.

If drugs were legal would you run out and do them? Most people would not. People who want to use drugs can get them very easily right now

Drug-fueled violence is escalating around the world, Mexico being a prime example. The drug war has made a health issue into a huge criminal problem. We have over 2 million Americans in prison now, that is 6 times the world median. We have 5% of the world’s population with 25% of the world’s prisoners. A great many are non violent drug offenders. People who use marijuana do not belong in prison and we can not afford to put them there.

No one has ever died from an overdose of Marijuana. Alcohol related disease killed 150,000 Americans last year, and tobacco 450,000. Contrast that to marijuana which is actually used to treat many illnesses. Marijuana is used medically in fourteen states, and the District of Columbia. Even the federal government has a medical marijuana program. The destructiveness of current policy is obvious, spending countless billions for that policy is something Americans simply can no longer afford, particularly when it just doesn’t work.

Open your eyes and your mind, help unite Americans. Marijuana prohibition is an ongoing problem, has failed, and is destructive to Americans and America. If you see marijuana as a problem it is clearly a health problem not a criminal one. Help your brother instead of destroying him — you may just need him and you can help put the country back on the economic track needed today more than ever.

Make no mistake: prohibition is profit driven, but not just for dealers and organized crime. The prison industrial complex, the pharmaceutical industry and law enforcement all depend on the drug war. They reap billions of dollars from it, money that would be better spent on infrastructure and education. Politicians cannot throw enough of your money away on the war against marijuana. This has been going on for so long that the raw data is there for all to see. The numbers and results speak for themselves.

Let me say it again: what have you got for your trillion dollars?…any questions?

For more on the economic impacts of marijuana prohibition also see:

Harvard Economist on why marijuana should be legalized:

Legal Pot Means Big Savings on Law Enforcement