Why worry about the cost of the drug war when we have so much money to burn?

Jeffrey Miron, author of the excellent book, Drug War Crimes, now has documented the true costs of the drug war and how much we could save if were to legalize drugs. His analysis pertains to legalization of ALL drugs, as well as just marijuana.

Here is the summary:

State and federal governments in the United States face massive looming fiscal deficits. One policy change that can reduce deficits is ending the drug war. Legalization means reduced expenditure on enforcement and an increase in tax revenue from legalized sales.

This report estimates that legalizing drugs would save roughly $41.3 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. Of these savings, $25.7 billion would accrue to state and local governments, while $15.6 billion would accrue to the federal government.

Approximately $8.7 billion of the savings would result from legalization of marijuana and $32.6 billion from legalization of other drugs.

The report also estimates that drug legalization would yield tax revenue of $46.7 billion annually, assuming legal drugs were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. Approximately $8.7 billion of this revenue would result from legalization of marijuana and $38.0 billion from legalization of other drugs.

But no worries, right? I mean, we have money to burn!

http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/DrugProhibitionWP.pdf

Prisons rarely make the news, until they bankrupt us

But this is a good story on NPR:

"Budget problems are forcing states and the federal government to rethink their approach to prisons. More than 2 million people are incarcerated in the United States, and the cost is getting unbearable.

"Even conservatives who describe themselves as tough on crime are starting to call for the release of some inmates. That's in part because the numbers are speaking louder than ever.
States spend about $50 billion a year to house prisoners, and experts say incarceration is the fastest-growing expense in state budgets, except for Medicaid."

I've been saying it for years. Now they're finally listening!

It's an amazing fact that the US leads the world not only in its incarceration rate but also the number of people in prison! If there were an Olympics for incarceration, we'd win the gold medal! (someone should write a song about that ...)

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/15/133760412/budget-crunch-forces-a-new-approach-to-prisons