On September 23, California issued short-term IOUs to their workforce. Since, California has raised $8.8 billion from individual investors who bought the loans and are looking to gain interest. California has resorted to losing money in the long run in order to bounce back now. Is there something California can do to stop the bleeding?
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano believes proposed bill AB390 can, also known as The Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act. According to the bill, taxing marijuana could raise $1 billion annually. In addition, the marijuana business would create jobs and have benefits of $12 to $18 billion a year. Maybe it is time Illinois followed down a similar path.
With a debt of $42 billion in May, Illinois needs to take action. The money raised from taxing legalized marijuana could not only save us from the recession, but benefit in the long term as well. If California can receive up to $18 billion, how much could Illinois raise?
The numbers will actually be higher than you think. Legalizing marijuana will also eliminate the war on drugs, which cost the federal government $19 billion in 2003, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Why so much?
First, the cost of hiring law enforcement to patrol drug traffickers is high. But, more importantly, prisons are the big issue. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigations, over 1.3 million have been arrested this year in the war on drugs, or one every 17 seconds. 25 percent of those arrested are incarcerated. It costs about $450,000 to put a single dealer in jail, according to the Schaffer Library of Drug Policy. That means over $146 billion has been spent on imprisoning drug offenders this year alone.
According to the Department of Justice, more than 50 percent of prisoners are drug offenders, a number which increased 80 percent between 1985 and 1995. Also, 18 percent of those imprisoned committed their crimes to obtain drug money. The average sentence for violent crimes is 63 months, while it is 75.6 months for drug offenses.
So what have we learned? Eliminating the war on drugs would reduce costs of patrolling drug traffickers and more violent crimes would be investigated. It also reduces the amount of prisoners, thus saving the money to put them through jail.
The money saved from prisons and the money raised through legalizing marijuana could go towards public education. According to the National Association of State Budget Officers, spending on prisons rose 30 percent between 1987 and 1998, while spending on education only rose 18.2 percent. A report by ABCNEWS.com showed state prison budgets were growing twice as fast as spending on public universities. It is time we put less focus on correcting criminals and more focus on preventing criminals through education.
We propose Illinois follows guidelines similar to alcohol. A citizen must be 21-years-old to legally possess, sell, and manufacture marijuana. In order to manufacture or sell the product, the seller must be licensed. As with alcohol and cigarettes, the marijuana packaging must include warnings of possible health hazards and potency of the product. Penalties would be issued for driving under the influence or selling marijuana to minors. Only for medicinal purposes is a minor allowed to utilize marijuana, likely through THC pills, which will be at the doctor’s discretion.
The biggest gain from legalizing marijuana will be the revenue. With the new law, the government will be allowed to tax the wholesale and retail sales of marijuana. Also, Illinois would impose higher taxes for products with higher potencies.
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