The Economic Benefits of the Legalization of Marijuana
Crimes related to marijuana have gotten out of control in our society. With more than 750,000(MPP.org) people arrested annually on charges related to marijuana it's clear that a change needs to occur. A clear choice would be to crack down on the sale and manufacture of marijuana, but the smarter choice would be to legalize it. There are many economic benefits to the legalization of marijuana. The economic benefits that producers and consumers would receive are numerous, the tax that could be placed on a product would make the government a main benefactor as well, as well as the money saved on the enforcement of marijuana prohibition. The first argument for …show more content…

As well as the immediate savings, one could observe that all related crimes would decrease – which would also save the government money on law enforcement. Because the price of product would be decreased, those who resort to burglary or other crimes would not need to do these things to afford their product. This decrease in secondary crimes would be a great help to the American government.
The legalization of marijuana would also create more jobs for the government. The FDA or some other sort of government entity would be used to regulate the marijuana product, which would require a bigger workforce, thus employing Americans in the government.
The biggest source of income for the government would be the ability to tax the marijuana product either at the federal, state, or local level. Dr. Steven T. Easton, professor of Economics at Simon Fraser University, conducted a study that estimates the average profit of a unit of marijuana sold on the street at $6.90 per unit (Easton). In a market controlled by the government, this profit would be able to go to them. Easton states: If we Substitute a tax on marijuana cigarettes equal to the difference between the local production cost and the street price people currently pay – that is, transfer the revenue from the current producers and marketers (many of whom work with organized crime) to the government, leaving all other marketing and transportation issues aside we would have a revenue of (say) $7 per unit.