Dr. Jeffrey Miron, an economics professor at Harvard, says replacing pot prohibition with a system of taxing and regulating it, in a fashion similar to alcohol, would generate a total of savings and revenue that would fall somewhere between $10 billion and $14 billion per year. Wow!
Now a group of distinguished economists (including Nobel Prize-winner Milton Friedman ) has written an open letter calling upon President Bush to have "...an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition." The letter adds, "We believe such a debate will favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods."
Read the story at prohibitioncosts.org.
"'As Milton Friedman and over 500 economists have now said, it's time for a serious debate about whether marijuana prohibition makes any sense,' said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. 'We know that prohibition hasn't kept marijuana away from kids, since year after year 85 percent of high school seniors tell government survey-takers that marijuana is easy to get. Conservatives, especially, are beginning to ask whether we're getting our money's worth or simply throwing away billions of tax dollars that might be used to protect America from real threats...'"
Since 1985, in various formats, SLANT -- an independent voice based in Richmond's Fan District -- has offered its readers original commentary on politics and popular culture, including cartoons and selected sundries. Warning: Sometimes that means satirical content. All rights are reserved.
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