Marijuana
Legalization
Organization

Nobody knows exactly how much money is spent to enforce anti-marijuana laws because there are so many factors to consider. Some of these factors are listed below.

Cost of keeping marijuana illegal =

• cost of active law enforcement +
• cost of prosecution (and defense!) of accused offenders +
• cost of incarceration of convicted offenders +
• hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue that would be generated if drugs were legal and taxed +
• cost of foster care and social services for children of incarcerated offenders +
• what else? Please tell us if you can think of a factor that is not included here!
• Sources to consider
  
  • Citizens Against Government Waste recently releasedThrough the Looking Glass, a special report documenting the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s waste of government resources.
  • New Report Projects $10-14 Billion Annual Savings and Revenues from Marijuana Regulation: Leading economists would prefer a system "in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods." Harvard Economics professor Jeffrey Miron concludes that marijuana legalization would create approximately $14 billion in benefits every year.
  • British Columbia's Marijuana Crop Worth Over $7 Billion Annually: according to a recent study by The Fraser Institute, the marijuana industry in British Colombia generates billions of dollars in revenue every year. This is a potential source of significant tax revenue to fund programs for health and education, but governments can't tax marijuana if it is illegal.
  • US Marijuana Crop Estimated to Be Worth Over $35 Billion. A new statistical analysis indicates that marijuana is America's most valuable cash crop. If these figures are even close to the truth, a logical system to regulate and tax marijuana would produce billions of dollars in revenue every year. Instead, our government stubbornly insists on keeping marijuana illegal and wasting billions of tax dollars enforcing prohibition.
  • Washington state would save about $105 million a year if marijuana were legally regulated, according to University of Washington Economics professor Dick Startz.
  • The US Federal Government Spends More Than $12 Billion Per Year on Drug Control Programs. Federal drug control budgets do not separate spending by drug, so we there is not a precise figure available for the amount that is spent on marijuana alone. Also, these figures do not include any spending by state or local governments, which are likely to be substantial since state police, courts, and prisons are constantly busy dealing with marijuana offenses.
  • Michael Hess of BBSNews estimates that marijuana prohibition in the U.S. costs at least $7 billion per year, not including misdemeanor cases.