Marijuana is on the brink of being accepted legally nationwide, but arrests related to the drug still result in massive costs and consequences. Ten states and Washington, DC have passed laws legalizing marijuana for recreational use. Twenty-three states and Washington, DC have decriminalized small amounts of the drug, meaning it’s no longer a state crime to be found in possession of marijuana. A push to legalize the drug recreationally in New York failed this past Wednesdaybut marijuana is close to being legalized in several other states, including Illinois. The legal marijuana industry could be a multi-billion dollar industry in the US, but for now, it’s actually costing Americans an exorbitant amount of money. Here, INSIDER breaks down the high costs of marijuana arrests to both the government and law enforcement, and the people who are arrested and charged with possession and distribution crimes.
Section 280E Makes $500 Million a Year
Unfortunately, it comprises the last years or so. The American Government, along with many others around the world, continues to resist calls to remove cannabis from the list of controlled substances under the act. Why does the U. Government insist on keeping weed illegal? Politicians pretend that there is a moral issue at play. This is hard to believe when successive governments allow access to firearms capable of firing hundreds of rounds a minute. Then there is the legalization of deadly opioidstobacco, and alcohol. Recent polls suggest that around two-thirds of Americans are in favor of marijuana legalization. Section E is a portion of the American Tax Code introduced in the s. It closed a loophole marijjuana enabled narcotics sellers hw make mucj related to their illegal businesses on their tax returns. Examples included travel costs and scales! Marijuana was govednment by E because it is a Schedule I drug. According maks one dispensary owner in Colorado, it is frustrating to learn that weed sellers are treated like drug dealers. The state government used the money to build schools, among other things.
Aren’t the Government Losing Money?
Is it probable that the Federal Government makes more money than we think from E? One of the most puzzling aspects of the entire circus is the fact that the government is losing money. It appears this way on the surface, at. According to an economist named Jeffrey Miron of Harvard University, the continued prohibition on weed costs are high. These figures mairjuana from ! There are thousands of misdemeanor marijuana possession cases pending in states where the plant is still illegal. Court proceedings cost states millions of dollars a year.
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Whether you are for its legalization or not, you are paying for marijuana to be illegal. According the Federal Bureau of Investigation , In other words, a whopping Half of the population that is in prison for substance abuse is in prison for marijuana-related crimes. Funnily enough, there was a time when it was illegal for farmers not to grow hemp , marijuana’s industrial and THC-deprived cousin that can be used to make fiber, oil, paper, fiberboard, rope, and nutritional hemp-seeds, among a copious amount of other things. Why did a renewable resource that had such a wide variety of uses suddenly become taboo for the American citizen and have its history nearly erased from every textbook and museum? The government decided to do what it does best: tax and regulate. It seems as if the government flip-flopped its stance on hemp and marijuana after the repeal of Prohibition, which itself was repealed because of the rise in organized crime and violent illegal suppliers of alcohol that it caused — a result which, interestingly enough, seem to be the same tragic result of the prohibition on marijuana.
Section 280E Makes $500 Million a Year
The legalization of marijuana has been a topic of contention and confusion for both sides of the debate. The federal government still deems it illegal. But marijuana has been legalized for recreational use in 10 states and the District of Columbia , and a further 21 broadly legalize medical marijuana. Researchers like myself finally have some data to assess claims made on both sides. One of the biggest pro-legalization arguments was that states would be able to bring in a new source of tax revenue. However, the states made more than enough back from marijuana sales, since marijuana taxes are typically greater than alcohol taxes. Other states are reaping the benefits of marijuana taxes as well. However, there are a lot of questions about how much tax revenue states will actually earn, especially considering that some states have missed their projections by a long shot. While projections for other types of goods are typically more reliable, this is an entirely new market and therefore prone to error. Well, the jury is still out.
Aren’t the Government Losing Money?
For decades, the failed war on drugs has devastated communities across the United States, contributing to unprecedented rates of incarceration. People of color have disproportionately felt the damaging and unnecessary consequences of these outdated tough-on-crime policies. Members of these communities have been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment as well as lifetimes of poverty and economic insecurity. These consequences are particularly troubling at a time when the federal government is returning to draconian drug enforcement. Meanwhile, most states are moving in the opposite direction, decriminalizing and liberalizing marijuana laws. As of , 30 states and the District of Columbia have enacted laws that loosen marijuana restrictions to some degree. The country is at a crossroads: revert to the disastrous drug enforcement policies of the past or pave the way toward smarter, fairer, and more effective criminal justice policy. States have been leading the way toward the latter and have experienced additional positive public health outcomes and improvements in the economy, all while maintaining public safety. The federal government is now in a position to learn from state experiments and take steps to legalize marijuana.
Cannabis Is Unjustly Being Used as a Weapon in Our Racist Police State — PRISONERS OF PROHIBITION
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Jump to navigation Skip navigation. Over economists, including three Nobel Laureates, recently signed a petition that encourages the president, Congress, governors and state legislatures to carefully consider marijuana legalization in America. The petition draws attention to an article by Harvard economist Jeffrey Mironwhose findings highlight the substantial cost-savings our government could incur if it were to tax and regulate marijuana, rather than needlessly spending billions of dollars enforcing its prohibition. The economists signing the petition note that the budgetary implications of marijuana prohibition are just one of many factors to be considered, but declare it essential that these findings become a serious part of the national decriminalization discussion. The advantages of marijuana legalization extend far beyond an opportunity to make a dent in our federal deficit.
Legalization still has a long way to go
The criminalization of marijuana is one of the many fights in the War on Drugs that has failed miserably. And while it’s tempting to associate only the harder, «scarier» drugs with this botched crusade, the fact remains that marijuana prohibition is very much a part of the battle. The federal government has even classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance its most serious category of substancesplacing it in a more dangerous category than cocaine. More thanpeople are arrested for marijuana use and possession each year, and 46 percent of all drug prosecutions across the country are for marijuana possession. Yet this costly and time-consuming targeting of marijuana users by law enforcement and lawmakers has done little to quell use of the drug.
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