THE Obama administration’s drug czar made news last week by saying he wanted to end all loose talk about a “war on drugs.” “We’re not at war with people in this country,” said the czar, Gil Kerlikowske, who favors forcing people into treatment programs rather than jail cells.
Here’s a better idea — and one that will help the federal and state governments fill their coffers: Legalize drugs and then tax sales of them. And while we’re at it, welcome all forms of gambling (rather than just the few currently and arbitrarily allowed) and let prostitution go legit too. All of these vices, involving billions of dollars and consenting adults, already take place. They just take place beyond the taxman’s reach.
Legalizing the world’s oldest profession probably wasn’t what Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, meant when he said that we should never allow a crisis to go to waste. But turning America into a Sin City on a Hill could help President Obama pay for his ambitious plans to overhaul health care and invest in green energy. More taxed vices would certainly lead to significant new revenue streams at every level. That’s one of the reasons 52 percent of voters in a recent Zogby poll said they support legalizing, taxing and regulating the growth and sale of marijuana. Similar cases could be made for prostitution and all forms of gambling.
Based on estimates from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Americans spend at least $64 billion a year on illegal drugs. And according to a 2006 study by the former president of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, Jon Gettman, marijuana is already the top cash crop in a dozen states and among the top five crops in 39 states, with a total annual value of $36 billion.
A 2005 cost-benefit analysis of marijuana prohibition by Jeffrey Miron, a Harvard economist, calculated that ending marijuana prohibition would save $7.7 billion in direct state and federal law enforcement costs while generating more than $6 billion a year if it were taxed at the same rate as alcohol and tobacco. The drug czar’s office says that a gram of pure cocaine costs between $100 and $150; a gram of heroin almost $400; and a bulk gram of marijuana between $15 and $20. Those transactions are now occurring off the books of business and government alike.
NORML doesn’t take a stand on legalization of prostitution, gambling, and drugs, just marijuana. Personally, while I see the logic in allowing consenting adults to consent to things adults do with their money and their genitals, I worry about the marijuana legalization argument being folded in with these other three arguments. In the 1970s, marijuana legalization arguments got mixed up with arguments for cocaine and the public support fell apart. If the public sees marijuana legalization tied into a more libertarian “let’s legalize it all” approach*, I’m afraid the public support will again fall apart.
If the discussions start to turn away from marijuana and to these other subjects, bring it back to marijuana:
Q: “If you’re going to legalize pot, why not legalize meth and coke, too?”
A: Certainly you don’t think marijuana is the same as meth, coke, or heroin, do you? We have different laws for Tylenol than we do for morphine; one you can buy over the counter and the other requires a prescription. I wouldn’t want hard drugs treated like marijuana any more than I want Oxycontin treated like beer. (Notice how I avoid answering the “should we legalize hard drugs” question. This is a rhetorical pivot where you force the opponent to validate an impossible premise, that legalizing pot means the same treatment is inevitable for hard drugs.)
Q: “If you’re going to raise money from sin taxes on marijuana, why not just legalize prostitution and gambling and tax that, too?”
A: Taxing marijuana is a consumption tax based on an individual’s personal use of a product – marijuana. Gambling and prostitution are services, not products. Others can argue the wisdom of regulating and taxing gambling and prostitution, but I’m here to talk about the regulation and taxation of product that has been proven to be less harmful than two substances we already regulate and tax – alcohol and tobacco – so I feel we’ve already proven that to be a superior method of social control for these products. (Again, no addressing whether I think we should tax and regulate prostitution and gambling and differentiation of marijuana from these other controversies.)
*I ain’t saying “legalize it all” is wrong. I’m just opining on what effect that strategy may have. Personally, not speaking for NORML, I think adults should be treated like adults and “ain’t nobody’s business if’n you do”.
I’ve smoked weed with Nick. When I was talking during the opening credits of The Sopranos, Gillespie interjected that I needed to stop “harshing his buzz.” I didn’t know people still talked like that.
Russ, I think your answers are pitch perfect and spot on. (That’s why you’re a communications professional.) But I think there’s also a place for Nick’s straightforward, live-and-let-live libertarian message.
It’s no good to try to hide an elephant behind a telephone pole.
For those of us for whom MMJ or legalization of marijuana (full stop) is the end-of-the-line, that’s fine. But we shouldn’t pretend that there aren’t people who want to legalize all drugs. How would we feel if people pretended that everyone only wanted to reduce sentences for marijuana, but no one wanted to allow its legal consumption by responsible adults?
[Of course, it's still okay to say NO ONE thinks kids should be allowed to smoke pot, because that's true.]