If you’re a fan of this site, you’ll know that I’ll occasionally go on my political rants, and these more often than not reveal my mostly conservative viewpoints. Here’s one for all you right-winged hippies. Let me just say that slaptheface.com doesn’t condone the use, sale of, or thinking about of illegal narcotics. Or the Shamwow, for that matter.
We’ve already had one “economic stimulus,” and with another on the horizon, I thought I’d go over a few numbers and throw something out there as an idea that might actually work… and, if my calculations are correct, work FAST. I propose the decriminalization of marijuana. It would work something like this: It wouldn’t be legalized, but would be regulated much like alcohol is. In fact, I believe alcohol is something that would provide a good analog for hypothetical statistics. Here’s what I figure:
Annual sale of marijuana in the US per year: $35 Billion.
Annual Alcohol sales in 2003: $115 Billion.
Now, if there’s 35 billion dollars worth of marijuana already being sold, imagine if it were decriminalized: perhaps 5% of the population purchases marijuana. I’d estimate about 70% regularly purchase alcohol. If people could, I’d imagine at least 50% of people (AT LEAST) would purchase marijuana. And, by multiplying, we’d see that 50% of people buying it would be about 350 billion dollars.
Next, tax the crap out of it. Make people purchase a “consumption license” that’s like a driver’s license. Sell it in government surplas shops, where all the 350 billion and the tax would go directly to it.
US National debt? Nearly 11 Trillion dollars. That means that in about 30 years (based on my modest numbers above) the US would be debt-free. Not to mention the jobs created by doing all this, the economy stimulated by people buying what is already America’s largest cash crop, and the overall general better attitude of everyone.
Is it the ideal solution? Not at all. It’s probably not a good thing to put something in Americans’ hands that could potentially kill someone either. But it’s there, it’s easy, and it would help out immensely to get America out of the stupid economic hole that it’s in. Just regulate it well, and it could be done with not too many problems.
Gracie!