December 26th, 2011 
admin Marijuana-related incarceration costs the US an estimated $1.2 billion/year (1). Police, DEA, and customs also add to the cost illegalization. So, savings could be achieved through decriminalization.
But legalization would open up a massive stream of revenue. The USA consumes roughly 14,000 metric tons of marijuana/year (2). Street price varies widely, but hypothetically let’s say $100/ounce (~$3.50/g). Government-regulated farms would probably cost a negligible fraction of that. So, let’s assume a post-legalization sales price of $3/gram, of which 80% is federal tax (the remainder being production, distribution, and vendor profit):
14,000mt = 14,000,000kg = 14 billion g x $3 x 0.80 = $33.6 billion. Of course, this is assuming that pre-prohibition levels were maintained.
Less tangible social benefits would include reduced incentive for gang crime, and reducing the ‘gateway drug’ effect (since marijuana users would no longer be purchasing from drug dealers).
(1) http://members.tripod.com/~ronmull/marijuana.html
(2) http://www.drugscience.org/Archive/bcr4/5Supply.html
And, just for the record, I don’t smoke marijuana, nor would I start if it were legalized.
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Waiting to hear from you on my “Marijuana Prohibition Rant” video! You’ve done a great job at proving your ignorance there lol youtube. com/watch?v=L-5SV48epIs Here’s the 15 minute video of marijuana facts overload, I invite everyone to watch it. reason. com/blog/2010/06/04/stoned-drivers-vs-drunk-driver There is another link at the bottom of the page with more info, though I know how much you dislike reading studies and facts mrarches, so we won’t be surprised when you completely ignore this and still say stoners cause lots of vehicular accidents as well as aggression and cancer lol Your not helping yourself in doing so. scienceblog. com/12116/study-says-marijuana-no-gateway-drug/ Marijuana is not a gateway drug, it’s the individual that decides what he/she uses. The person’s history and environment has more of an effect on what drugs this person is going to take than what drugs has been previously taken. canadaonline.about. com/od/marijuana/a/senatemjreport. htm Canada agrees that marijuana is not a gateway drug. www.420magazine. com/forums …
