Legalize It...and Then Leave It Alone!

Maureen Brown disagrees in a significant way

As every state faces a budget crisis and our Legislature repeals voter-approved initiatives to fill the budget gap, creative solutions are needed. A lucrative idea yet to be proposed is to legalize

Music to the ears! But, unfortunately, the attorney who authored this opinion isn't finished.

and tax marijuana.

Shoulda seen it coming. I held this position not too long ago. I've since come to my senses. Of all the taxes we are subjected to, very few raise the taste of bile in my throat like those on the "vices." Sin taxes piss me off.

While seemingly a radical leftist idea, legalizing and taxing marijuana would not only help close the hole in the budget but also provide much-needed jobs and help to farmers. Domestically grown marijuana is the second largest cash crop in the United States, behind only corn.

Libertarians support legalizing marijuana, too! *grumble grumble*

One thing to keep in mind about legalizing pot is that the reason it makes growers so much money is because it's illegal. That drives the price way up. I am certain that the value of marijuana would drop like a rock the moment it becomes legalized. Once a free market gets ahold of an idea, innovation and economies of scale take over. Of course, it's also intensely likely that a lot of recreational users would buy from local sources, suddenly free to grow and experiment openly. So I'm not all that sure legalizing weed would result in a large increase in farm employment.

The end to marijuana prohibition would merely require the rescheduling of marijuana from a Schedule I to a non-scheduled drug, similar to alcohol, nicotine, caffeine or ibuprofen. Once the federal government had decriminalized marijuana, all states would have the option of legalizing it. States could either be "smoky" or "clear," similar to "wet" and "dry" locales after Prohibition ended in the 1930s. In addition, counties or municipalities could be "clear" jurisdictions if they so chose.

Indeed, this would be a good thing when compared to the current situation, but it is still profoundly immoral in my eyes. The article isn't making this arguement explicitly (which is why I am), but what difference does it make if the federal government decides to take pot off Schedule I when our freedom do use it would be merely the subject of a smaller government's whim?

A model for how marijuana would be sold and how the taxes would be collected is the state liquor system. Here, liquor may be sold only by the bottle in state-run liquor stores. There is an excise tax on the liquor and a sales tax is charged to all non-industry customers.

Similarly, marijuana would only be sold in state-run stores, possibly in current liquor stores. Ordinary customers could pay a variety of taxes on the marijuana bought there, including a federal excise tax, a state excise tax and a sales tax.Customers also would have the option of going to marijuana bars, possibly including current alcohol bars, to buy marijuana to be smoked there.

By legalizing this drug, the government would save the money it currently spends fighting the war on marijuana.

As you will see shortly, this attorney is salivating at the taxing possibilities here. It's pathetic. That last point, however, is a good one and very crucial to emphasize. It is a crime that I am taxed, among other reasons, for combating the use of a drug I myself use occasionally.

The government could also raise revenues by placing an excise tax on marijuana, much like the excise taxes imposed on alcohol and cigarettes. A federal excise tax of 6 percent on the $11 billion U.S. consumers spend on marijuana every year would produce $660 million for the federal government. Similarly, Washington could impose excise and sales taxes on marijuana. If Washingtonians smoke one-fiftieth of the total marijuana smoked in the United States, we consume $220 million worth of marijuana every year. A 6 percent excise tax would bring in $13.2 million every year for the state. The average state and local sales tax is around 8 percent, which would bring in another $17 million every year.

Yet another source of revenue would be from taxing all the income derived from the marijuana industry that currently goes unreported. In a nation with legalized marijuana, many workers would earn income from the marijuana industry, among them agricultural workers, farmers, factory workers, salespeople and CEOs.

Again, I'm willing to grant that such a situation would be so much better than the one we are in now. But I am not going to give in on this: government must get reduced and it's various budgets balanced and the only way I believe the latter should be done is through the mechanisms of the former. (Ms.?) Brown doesn't say one word about reducing government spending beyond the part about cutting the costs of the War on Drugs.

Adding up all the numbers, the federal government would have additional revenues of $6 billion a year and the states an additional $17 billion for a combined total of $23 billion a year. This money could pay for the entire food stamp program, provide a tax rebate of approximately $150 per taxpayer per year or pay for a war with an axis of evil regime. Washington state's portion of the marijuana pie would be $330 million; that might not be enough to solve our next budget crisis, but it is a start.

I'd like to (if I had the time and patience) plot out the opinions published in American newspapers since Europeans first landed here up till the present and find the moment when adding revenue to the state became more important than freeing people physically and financially to do what they think is best for their lives.

Posted by Drizzten at August 18, 2003 10:01 PM