We currently have an untaxed, extremely profitable product in the market which not one company produces. It has multiple uses, has caused zero reported deaths from personal use, and is used by a huge percentage of the population. This product is marijuana, and I’m sure you have all heard arguments similar to the ones listed above as reasons to legalize it. I can compare them to cigarettes, or state how many more people alcohol has killed, but that is not the point of this article. In the following paragraphs I will state why we need to legalize weed from an economic standpoint.
As we all know we are in a recession, and it’s a big one. We are currently inventing money as we go, trying to stimulate the economy. However, we are only giving the illusion of stability, but we are still losing money. What we need is a way to generate a new source of revenue as a country, and marijuana is a great choice. It is easy to grow, has a huge customer base, and currently has a ridiculous price attached to it. The price is due to the 5-10 people that actually buy the weed from the grower before you buy it from them. All of these people are trying to turn a profit. My proposition is to keep similar prices to the ones we have now. You do this by making companies compete for the market, driving the price down, and then simply do what we do with cigarettes, tax it to an extreme level. On every purchase, the government will be taking the money that the middlemen should have received. Though I would have no way to approximate the amount of money that could be earned in this way in a year, I can safely say that it would be extremely high.
The argument is often presented that the drug is used by so many people already, and it is so readily available that we should just legalize it. Most advocates against its legalization argue that frequent use is no reason for something to be legal, only that we need stricter laws. I argue that since it is used so much, we should simply tax it, and make it available to those we deem mentally capable of using it. It was so much easier when I was in high school to get weed then get alcohol. Before I was 18 even cigarettes were harder to obtain. Legal restrictions are way more enforceable because if you can obtain something legally there is no need for an underground market. Underground markets have no age limits or restrictions; they are a come one, come all establishments. By legalizing its use, we can at least put a damper on underage use of the drug.
There is rarely a prescription drug advertised on TV that lists possible side effects that are less scary than those associated with weed use. Drunk driving is the number one cause of car accidents. Cigarettes are the number one cause of cancer. These are things we know as facts. These are all things that are legal solely because of economic gain, disregarding all obvious negative affects that we know for a fact kill people. Not one death has ever been associated with overdosing on weed. It’s actually physically impossible. Therefore, if we are willing to give lives to make a profit, I see no reason why we wouldn’t legalize a much safer drug for the same economic gain.
Blake Boris-Schacter's Blog 