Реферат: Marijuana Legalization Essay Research Paper Most Americans

smoking in the privacy of their own homes, we are

wasting police and prosecutorial resources, clogging

courts, filling costly and scarce jail and prison space,

and needlessly wrecking the lives and careers of

genuinely good citizens.Marijuana legalization offers an important

advantage over decriminalization in that it allows for

legal distribution and taxation of cannabis. In the

absence of taxation, the free market price of legal

marijuana would be extremely low, on the order of

five to ten cents per joint. In terms of intoxicating

potential, a joint is equivalent to at least $1 or $2

worth of alcohol, the price at which cannabis is

currently sold in the Netherlands. The easiest way to

hold the price at this level under legalization would

be by an excise tax on commercial sales. An

examination of the external costs imposed by

cannabis users on the rest of society suggests that a

“harmfulness tax” of $.50 – $1 per joint is

appropriate. It can be estimated that excise taxes in

this range would raise between $2.2 and $6.4 billion

per year. Altogether, legalization would save the

taxpayers around $8 – $16 billion, not counting the

economic benefits of hemp agriculture and other

spinoff industries.