How many billions? Last year, Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron estimated that the federal government spends about $2.4 billion annually on enforcing anti-marijuana laws, which is on top of about $5.3 billion that local and state governments spend annually. Under prohibition, we also forgo the roughly $6.2 billion in tax revenues that Prof. Miron says would be generated if marijuana were regulated and taxed like alcohol and tobacco.

But that's only part of the cost of marijuana prohibition. The federal government has spent over $1 billion since 1998 on TV, radio and print anti-drug ads that have focused overwhelmingly on marijuana, often neglecting far more dangerous drugs like methamphetamine. And the government spends millions of additional dollars conducting and publicizing research that's designed to justify marijuana prohibition -- and an unknown amount campaigning against state and local efforts to reform marijuana laws.

The goal of all this is to choke off the marijuana supply and put a stop to marijuana use. Are we getting our money's worth?

In a word, no.

According to the U.S. Justice Department's 2006 National Drug Threat Assessment report, "Marijuana availability is high and stable or increasing slightly." In another recent federal government survey, 86 percent of high school seniors said that marijuana was "easy to get" -- a figure that has remained virtually constant since 1975.

All this, despite an all-time record marijuana "eradication" campaign in 2005, with over four million plants seized. Marijuana arrests have also set a record: 771,984 in one year. That's the equivalent of arresting every man, woman and child in the state of Wyoming plus St. Paul, Minnesota -- every year.

By cherry-picking the most favorable statistics, the White House has tried to convince us that marijuana use has dropped in a big way, but this simply isn't so.

Although changes in survey methodology make direct comparisons difficult, the latest edition of the federal government's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, released last September, reports a higher percentage of 12- to 17-year-olds using marijuana at least monthly than when President Nixon first declared a "war on drugs" in 1971. The number of Americans who admit to having tried marijuana has reached an all-time record -- nearly 100 million.

Nearly 15 million say they use marijuana at least monthly. That's more people than attend all college and professional football games in a typical month, more than three times as many as buy Apple's red-hot iPod in a month, and eight times as many as attend rock concerts in a month.

The futile effort to "eradicate" marijuana has produced a harvest of misery. By forfeiting any chance to regulate the marijuana market -- you can't regulate what's illegal, after all -- we've given criminals and gangsters an exclusive franchise. We've guaranteed that marijuana will be grown in dangerous locations -- even hidden in wilderness areas or national parks -- instead of by regulated producers who are subject to environmental and labor standards. Unlike liquor merchants, who could lose their very lucrative liquor licenses if they sell to children, marijuana dealers have no incentive not to sell to kids.

Marijuana prohibition may be the most spectacular policy failure since -- well, since the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s. It's time to stop wasting money on this boondoggle. It's time to tax and regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol.

Rob Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.

Source: AlterNet (US)
Author: Rob Kampia, AlterNet
Published: April 14, 2006
Copyright: 2006 Independent Media Institute
Contact: letters@alternet.org
Website: http://www.alternet.org/
DL: http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/34929/

Marijuana Policy Project
http://www.mpp.org/

Regulate it and tax it so we can get this country out of debt or we'll be the "United States of China" before too long!

THE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...

Corporate Media Willfully Ignores Charlie Sheen's Challenge: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/130406willfullyignores.htm

Reinforcing The Official Lie: http://www.infowars.com/articles/terror/reinforcing_the_official_lie_flight93_tapes.htm

The 9/11 Truth Revolution: http://mujca.com/truthrevolution.htm

Do Justice: http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/04/do-justice.html

To Doug Thompson, Capitol Hill Blue: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/bbs/message.php?showdate=4/14/06&messageid=221152

911podcasts.com presents Robert Bowman and Michael Wolsey Interview: http://www.911podcasts.com/display.php?vid=57

The poor, the needy, the hungry, all suffer because of our tax dollar Drug addiction. Even our spiritual foundations have become infected with our tax dollars on Drugs.

Our Constitutional Rights have been damaged by our Drug addicted tax dollars. A Police State is the result.

It's time to get our Tax Dollars Off Drugs. There is only one thing that will replace that addiction. TRUTH.

It's not about the Drugs, it's about the Truth.

It's time to end the WAR ON TRUTH.

Regulate and Prosper. The handwriting's on the wall.

Still to this day, even though the darkness of ignorance is illuminated with the light of truth and hard-won fact, the 'emperor wears no clothes.' And those of us that have to look at that horrendous form of nakedness have a hard time saving our dinner.

Thorns and Horns