Mary Jane...
Salon.com ran an interview today given by Katharine Mieszkowski to California State Legislator Tom Ammiano from San Francisco. Ammiano is the lawmaker who recently introduced a bill that would decriminalize marijuana in the Golden State, thus creating a taxable industry that fingers some $14 billion annually. Ammiano also points out that legalizing the herb would lower non-violent incarceration rates and inmate maintenance costs, along with “the money you would save in law enforcement by regulating marijuana, decriminalizing it and putting those resources into serious crimes.”
Now, so far, this sounds like a reasonable option (one I mostly agree with). And really who wants to be mocked? (Answers Ammiano in one question, "other countries laugh at us for our drug laws. Britain, Canada, the Netherlands and most of Europe have very liberalized drug laws in and around harm reduction.") But this interview spawned some lingering questions:
After marijuana is legalized, reaping an estimated $1 billion in additional tax revenue, freeing millions of dollars commissioned to serve in the War on Drugs, eventually sold in nice hard or soft packs in liquor stores next to the Dom and Colt 45, what happens to the drug dealers that made money slinging drugs on the corner? How do they replace the wads of loot they brought home every night? Basically, what do the employees of the black market do?
It seems that, in a sense, street dealers making modest money selling weed will end up like many Wall Street execs: forced into a lower standard of living because their job was eliminated. What’s their next product for sale: crack, meth, heroin, pharmaceuticals?
Makes for a different perspective of pot as a “gateway” drug.
(Update: April 27 -- Could confidently wager a significant amount that a lot of pot dealers already sell more than herb.)
No comments:
Post a Comment