Had a conversation about the legalization of marijuana today and it made me do some research. I want to state for the record that I dont smoke. All my pot smoking friends know this. I still want to know how the legalization of marijuana is even a question considering the facts. Once legal, pot becomes taxable which is why a lot of economically intelligent smokers are actually against legalization but pro decriminalization. That being said, lets look at the facts of my research.... As of July 14th, 2014, the state of Colorado has generated 25,307,067.00 in tax revenue from January 1st, 2014 to July 11th, 2014. It is predicted to generate 70 million dollars by the end of the fiscal year (January 1st, 2015). That being said, the population of Colorado had a population estimated to be 5,268,367 as of the 2013 census. Ranked the 22nd highest population in the US. Highest populated state was California with an estimated 38,323,521 people. Thats more than 7 times Colorados population. Assuming marijuana sales do well in California as it does in Colorado, that means a fiscal year would result in 177,149,469.00 in tax revenue if marijuana was legal for recreational use in California. The US population as a whole in the 2013 census was 316,148,990 people. Once again, assuming the rate of pot smokers to non smokers stays the same as Colorado, the country as a whole would generate 4,200,624,085.00 in tax revenue off of marijuana sales. Now, lets look at different numbers... According to FBI statistics, someone is arrested every 42 seconds for marijuana. It has been reported that taxpayers spend between 1.5 and 3 billion dollars a year on police and court time involved in making these arrests. Well call that 2.25 billion dollars in just court and cop time. Now, in 2011, 1,531,251 people were arrested, out of those 12.3% were drug related. Out of that 12.3%, 757,969 people were arrested on marijuana based charges. Once again, these are FBI bases statistics. According to The Urban Institute Justice Policy Center, it costs 21,006.00 to clothe, offer medical and dental, transport, educate, and maintain living facilities for 1 inmate a year in a minimum security facility. Only 56% of inmates are housed in minimum security facilities and maximum security is even more costly so its safe to assume each inmate was sentenced for a year (especially considering the average sentence is 36.8 months long) With 757,969 people incarcerated for marijuana at 21,066.00 per person, the average cost to keep marijuana offenders in jail is 15,921,896,814.00 a year. Now, lets talk debt. The United States of America is 17,828,978,235,000 dollars to date. Thats trillion. If you subtract the 15,921,896,814 dollars it takes to house all marijuana offenders in prison, the debt drops to 17,813,056,338,186 dollars Next subtract the 2,250,000,000 dollars or costs the courts and police to arrest and sentence all marijuana offenders and the debt drops to 17,813,054,088,186 dollars. Finally we subtract the 4,200,624,085 dollars tax revenue that would be gained from legalization of recreational marijuana usage in all 50 states and the debt drops to 17,808,853,464,101 dollars. That totals a whopping 20,114,770,899 dollars cut from the US deficit. Why is this even a discussion?
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 01:19:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015