Save the Economy? Legalize Pot

That's the not-so-surprising conclusion reached not long ago by more than a few noted economists, Milton Friedman among them. In a letter to congress and the president, over 500 of the bean counters called for the federal government to decriminalize marijuana, cease the costly and ineffective prohibition of the drug, and regulate it the way we do alcohol.

The report shows that marijuana legalization--replacing prohibition with a system of taxation and regulation--would save $7.7 billion per year in state and federal expenditures on prohibition enforcement and produce tax revenues of at least $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like most consumer goods. If, however, marijuana were taxed similarly to alcohol or tobacco, it might generate as much as $6.2 billion annually.

In California, San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has introduced a measure to the legislature calling for just such a turnabout. In case you were wondering, marijuana is said to be California's biggest cash crop, but as it is illegal, it goes untaxed. The bill's authors claim that decriminalizing and regulating pot could fill state coffers with an estimated $13 billion per year.

Regardless of the discrepancies in the estimates that decriminalization would mean in terms of tax dollars, it's clear that we're talking billions that the government could raise. By regulating the drug, we'd also cut down on crime, cartel warfare, and all the astronomical expenses associated with trying to keep a naturally growing substance from sprouting within our borders. As Andrew Sullivan recently pointed out, at least two of our presidents have used pot, Michael Phelps, our greatest Olympic athlete, has smoked the stuff. Maybe, just maybe, all that PR money could be better spent.

I'm not a pot smoker, myself (I prefer the much more harmful drug known as alcohol), but this just seems like common sense. What do you think?