Pubdate: Mon, 01 Oct 2012
Source: Daily Targum (Rutgers, NJ Edu)
Copyright: 2012 Daily Targum
Contact:  http://www.dailytargum.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/715
Author: Joe Amditis

SAME SONG AND DANCE

Swimming Upstream

I found myself engaged in several conversations this week concerning
the "War on Drugs" and the residual effects it has on various aspects
of our society, and I discovered that many of the people I spoke with
had very little -- if any -- knowledge about the subject. Even worse,
those who actually had something to contribute to the discussion often
seemed to simply regurgitate wildly inaccurate and dangerously
propagandistic "facts" that I suspect they picked up from scattered
mainstream news broadcasts or their child's DARE pamphlets from the
1990s. In order to prevent the continued spread of these
misunderstandings and to keep them from being propagated throughout
the population during a crucial election year, I decided to do some
research to find out the truth about the impact of the "War on Drugs."

One of the most common statements I have heard when discussing the
prohibition of drugs -- specifically marijuana -- usually goes
something along the lines of, "Yes, I guess pot should be
decriminalized and, at most, it should be regulated like alcohol. But
really, in the grand scheme of things, it's just pot. Who cares?"

As it turns out, a lot of people care. Furthermore, it's not just the
pizza delivery drivers and the garage-rock jam bands that are affected.

For example, there are currently about 557,700 medical marijuana
patients who are hassled on a daily basis for taking the prescribed
medication, yet they are treated as criminals instead of sick people
who need care. The taxpayers of the United States also have quite a
stake in the legality of marijuana. Taxpayers shell out millions of
dollars in taxes every year in order to fund the massive-scale
marijuana-related police operations in support of the ongoing
prohibition. New Jersey spends about $183 million, New York spends
$654 million, North Carolina spends $120 million, and Texas spends
about $330 million every single year just to fund state-level
prohibition efforts.

Sounds like a lot of money, right? Not to mention those are just some
of the figures at the state level. Those same U.S. taxpayers will
likely be surprised to find out that the federal government spends an
additional $10 billion on marijuana-related activity every year, which
amounts to roughly 72.5 percent of the $13.8 billion the federal
government spends annually on all prohibition enforcement activity.

Money isn't everything though, right? That may be true, and in that
case, consider this: Millions of people are incarcerated for
marijuana-related charges (an overwhelming majority of whom are
non-violent offenders with mere possession charges). Those numbers add
up. Roughly 1,885,044 people in California, 371,831 in Colorado and
1,136,891 in Indiana are all facing time behind bars right now. That
adds up to more than three million people in those four states alone
and, while money may not be everything, consider that it costs an
average of $31,286 a year to house each inmate at state prisons.

Lastly, there have been more than 47,515 people killed in the last
five years alone because of Mexican drug cartel violence. The cartels
are able to exploit the high-stakes market for drugs prohibition has
created across the U.S. border.

The risk of getting caught and being sent to jail creates an
artificial inflation of the price of drugs. This increases the amount
of risk involved in smuggling, distribution and use, thereby
increasing the price and the lengths the cartels will go to make sure
they make a profit. If marijuana is legal, there is no risk and
therefore, no reason to charge such a high price, which results in
less violence.

On the bright side, however, the legal regulation of marijuana is
projected to bring an estimated $9.5 billion in revenue from both the
taxation on regulated sales, and the agricultural and industrial
benefits of marijuana (not to mention the money that will be saved
through the reduction in prohibition-related expenditures).

The point is that there is a serious deficit of knowledge today
surrounding the actual costs and consequences of marijuana
prohibition. Spreading the truth about the effects of marijuana
prohibition is the first step toward fixing a problem that effects
more people than you may realize.

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Joseph Amditis is a School of Arts and Sciences senior majoring in
criminal justice and political science with minors in psychology and
criminology.
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MAP posted-by: Matt