Over 300 Economists Agree: Legalize Marijuana

[Wizard777]

Over 300 Economists Agree: It’s Time to Legalize Marijuana

Over 300 economists have signed on to an open letter to the President, Congress, Governors, and State Legislators asking them to allow this “country to commence an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition.” The petition states that the undersigned “believe such a debate will favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods.”

Notably, three of the economists who have already signed on are Nobel Laureates. Three hundred plus additional economic scholars have already signed on, you can view the list and more details here. Full text of the petition letter is below:

We, the undersigned, call your attention to the attached report by Professor Jeffrey A. Miron, The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition. 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.

[TheResearcher]

Yeah, but they're the useless pothead economists. No one takes them seriously.

[Wizard777]

Yeah, but they're the useless pothead economists. No one takes them seriously.

Potheads make the world go around.

We also tend to be more intellectual than your average person.

[betamanlet]

But Dear Leader doesn't agree.

[banner1124]

But Dear Leader doesn't agree.

Why are you trying so desparately to tie this to Obama? Name for me the last president who was for legalizing pot?

[betamanlet]

Why are you trying so desparately to tie this to Obama? Name for me the last president who was for legalizing pot?

Pot didn't always used to be illegal. in fact on a national level, it only became illegal under FDR.

[Diego]

Why are you trying so desparately to tie this to Obama? Name for me the last president who was for legalizing pot?

None that I know of. I wonder why it keeps getting brought up.

[Candy Pickletoes]

I wish they would legalize it, tax it, and mandate that it can only be smoked in your own home because I can't stand the smell of it and I shouldn't be subjected to the second-hand pot smoke.

[gps29070]

Just legalize pot, and get rid of the bogus war on drugs. Start treating drug problems as a medical problem, not as a criminal problem. The Dutch have it right on this one.

[banner1124]

Pot didn't always used to be illegal. in fact on a national level, it only became illegal under FDR.

So what's with the dear leader comment? You seem to be trying (on a couple of topics) to use this as some sort of slam against Obama.

It's too bad most people just aren't aware of the *real* reasons, i.e. corporate interests, that pot is illegal in the first place.

[Wizard777]

Why are you trying so desparately to tie this to Obama? Name for me the last president who was for legalizing pot?

Bill Clinton (before he was elected) and before him it was Ronald Reagan (before he was elected) before him it was Jimmy Carter (even after being elected.)

Apparently what needs to be done is we need to find that J. Edgar Hoover like person that greets the new President in the Oval Office to inform him that if he doesn't reverse his pro marijuana position the Secret Service will take him out behind the White House and shoot him the head. There is just no way these reversals can be political in nature. There has to be some ominous figure in the shadows making threats.

[Wizard777]

Just legalize pot, and get rid of the bogus war on drugs. Start treating drug problems as a medical problem, not as a criminal problem. The Dutch have it right on this one.

That's not gonna happen. Too many companies doing too much war profiteering to ever allow this war to end. The Medical Marijuana States need to create Constitutional offices with employees performing constitutionals duties. Then when the DEA raids them that is an attack upon the state by the federal government. That's a constitutionally defined act of treason. We can put on trial and hang every last SOB in DC that is involved in the treason in any way shape or form or comes into contact with the treason that fails to act to stop the treason. Treason is treated more like a highly communicable disease than a crime. You can only act to stop the disease or become a part of it.

[grggngll]

Just legalize pot, and get rid of the bogus war on drugs. Start treating drug problems as a medical problem, not as a criminal problem. The Dutch have it right on this one.

That was 15 years ago. Now they have realized they made a mistake and are reverting some of the steps.

[Smokey 1]

The government has no legal standing to dictate what a citizen can put into their own body.

[CajunRaven]

That's not gonna happen. Too many companies doing too much war profiteering to ever allow this war to end. The Medical Marijuana States need to create Constitutional offices with employees performing constitutionals duties. Then when the DEA raids them that is an attack upon the state by the federal government. That's a constitutionally defined act of treason. We can put on trial and hang every last SOB in DC that is involved in the treason in any way shape or form or comes into contact with the treason that fails to act to stop the treason. Treason is treated more like a highly communicable disease than a crime. You can only act to stop the disease or become a part of it.

This! The war on drugs is about effective as the was on poverty or the departments of education and energy. Can't do anything about any of them though, they're industries now.

[banner1124]

The government has no legal standing to dictate what a citizen can put into their own body.

This is spot on!

If it were up to me there wouldn't be any such thing as an illegal drug. You should be able to take whatever the hell you want to.

[Wizard777]

This is spot on!

If it were up to me there wouldn't be any such thing as an illegal drug. You should be able to take whatever the hell you want to.

As long as the manufactures enclose a list of known dangers. An educated consumer is the best consumer.

[johnpolitics]

Pot didn't always used to be illegal. in fact on a national level, it only became illegal under FDR.

Link?
Proof?

[johnpolitics]

Make it legal. I think/hope in the second term the feds will let the states decide. Good old federalism/devolution.

[zenwalk]

This is spot on!

If it were up to me there wouldn't be any such thing as an illegal drug. You should be able to take whatever the hell you want to.

The concept of making anything illegal to eat or injest is weird. In fact, back a few decades ago they reissued the first Montgomery Wards catalogue. 5 pages were missing in the page count. What they didn't redact was the index where it turns out the missing pages were opium recipes to calm your children and assorted nerve tonics (basically opium dissolved in alcohol). The drug thing as we know it only gained legs when the Guv decided to use it to chase Mexicans out of the country and against Blacks just because.