“Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica.” – Abraham Lincoln (excerpt from a letter from President Lincoln during his administration to the president of the German Hohner Harmonica Co.).
The current financial crisis that began in 2008 has incited change in many aspects of The United States — from new regulations to new cultural lifestyles and, arguably, a new president.
Though one of the more curious circumstances its tentacles of change have latched onto has been the debate on the legalization of marijuana.
Though there has been a general global trend towards decriminalization of the leaf prior to the economic calamity, the financial crisis has escalated talks of full-on legalization in states that have been disproportionately hit with budgetary crises.
California, long a leader in the marijuana culture and trend-setter of the United States, is one such state battling with multi-billion dollar deficits due to drastic decreases in tax revenue as a result of high unemployment (along with other structural deficit problems).
This November Californians will have the chance to vote on a variety of possible legalization/decriminalization options for their state. The bill with the most momentum behind it is the Regulate, Control, and Tax act of 2010 — or Proposition 19 for short.
Prop. 19 would fully legalize the growth and consumption of marijuana for people ages 21 and older, but would leave the authority to regulate, ban, and tax the leaf up to individual cities or counties. This seems like the most logical option.
One study suggests that the current price of marijuana in California would decrease by 80% after its legalization. Estimates say the state would save $1.9 billion in costs related to detaining and imprisonment for possession of the substance, and would generate an additional $1.4 billion through tax revenues. That figure may fluctuate if taxation is left up to individual counties.
If similar legislation were adopted in other states without steep budget deficits, the tax revenues could be used for purposes such as education — similar to how Texas currently uses its “sin tax” revenue from alcohol and tobacco to fund a lot of public education due to its lack of a state income tax.
Some see it as pitiful to consider legalizing marijuana due to fiscal austerity, but it certainly is a pragmatic solution for a state that is already laying off thousands of public employees including teachers, drastically cutting school budgets and shortening the number of required days for school attendance. Not to mention the absolute hypocrisy of its criminality compared to the legality of alcohol and tobacco.
Though much more harmful to the body, alcohol and tobacco continue to be legal in the United States, and have been since the country’s founding with the exception of alcohol during Prohibition.
The alcohol and tobacco industries have always had a place in our country, with even a number of our founding fathers and early presidents growing the crop or bootlegging the drink. Although less known, marijuana was also widely grown by early farmers and even by presidents such as George Washington (and yes, this is true; not some conspiracy weed hoax).
Though its use was primarily commercial and industrial, its recreational uses have long been known and were surely occasionally used as such. It’s strange that these three agricultural staples have been present since the nation’s inception, yet only marijuana has been criminalized. Perhaps this is due to the rise of cotton and other textile alternatives replacing the practical uses of hemp.
Though it would certainly have economic benefits and would be less hypocritical than current US drug policy, an even more important reason for the leaf’s legalization is one less discussed — national security. Demand for marijuana creates a highly profitable business for the drug lords of Central and South America, where the majority of the United States’ marijuana comes from.
The drug cartels in Mexico have become so economically empowered by our huge demand for the illegal substance that they have become powerful enough to outright challenge the Mexican government, subsequently causing hundreds of deaths this year alone inside of Mexico, at our border and even on US soil.
With a single act of legalization, if the currently inflated market price for the plant fell according to the 80% estimate, that would prove to be severely destabilizing for these drug cartel operations.
It would cut a majority of their funding right out from under them. Mexico has tried in recent years to legalize marijuana even if the US wouldn’t, but eventually bowed under pressure from the US not to do so.
In conclusion, it’s terribly misguided to criminalize a plant which grows naturally on this planet. The majority of the animosity and negative public sentiment against the crop is a result of the lasting effects of the government propaganda against the substance that was popular in the earlier half of the last century, and if you don’t believe this it will prove itself to be true as current generations’ age and younger generations come to power.
And if it supposedly makes people crazy or deprives them of motivation in life, I guess one can just point to scientist and astrophysicist Carl Sagan, or 14-time gold-medal Olympian Michael Phelps, or numerous US presidents including Bill Clinton, George Bush and Barack Obama.