THE FISCAL CASE FOR LEGALISING MARIJUANA

It's A No-Brainer: Ending the 'War on Drugs' Would Create Jobs, Cut
Law Enforcement Costs, Raise Revenue - and Benefit Patients

Marcy Dolin, of Rohnert Park, California, smokes eight joints
(marijuana cigarettes) every day, and eats a marijuana cookie before
he goes to bed every night. He prefers the peanut-butter cookies.

A 71-year-old man who has struggled with multiple-sclerosis for over
half his life, Dolin is not the typical drug user often parodied in
popular culture. He does not smoke recreationally, but rather because
marijuana is the only thing that takes away the pain and stops the
muscles spasms.

"Without [marijuana], I would be living on morphine and other horrible
drugs. I couldn't do that to my family," he recently told the New York
Times. "That's no life, and I would have ended it. That's the truth."

Dolin is not alone. Across the United States, people struggling with
chronic illness increasingly are questioning US policy toward
marijuana, a homeopathic substance that until 1937 was, for the most
part, legal and regulated. Friday marks the 40th anniversary of the
"war on drugs". And what do we have as a result?

Hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in the midst of a fragile
economy, the financial and social cost of imprisoning hundreds of
thousands of offenders annually, and patients like Dolin who continue
to suffer due to our failed policies. When compared to other drugs,
recent clinical trials have shown that marijuana is exceedingly
successful in relieving pain, without the serious side-effects that
often plague users of other medications.

"I used to take a drug called Neurontin, and I just never stopped
crying," Dolin continues. "I was in a fog, totally depressed. I told
my doctor that I was going back to just marijuana; he said he would
have me arrested if he could. What are they going to do? I'm 71 years
old. Are they going to put me in jail? I'm not hurting anybody. It's
just here in my own house."

Debilitating pain in the nervous system can be caused by cancer,
HIV/Aids, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes; this pain can also be a
side-effect of the recommended treatments for these various
conditions. About a third of patients with HIV/Aids suffer from this
excruciating pain in their nervous system - much of it a response to
the antiretroviral therapy that is the initial treatment for HIV
patients. Yet there is no adequate approved treatment to mitigate the
pain. As a result, some patients reduce or discontinue treatment
because they can neither tolerate nor eliminate the debilitating
side-effects. Marijuana has been proven to alleviate the effects of
both the illness itself, and the prescribed medication used to treat
it.

While the advantages of legal medical marijuana are clear, the
potential benefits of full legalisation should also be considered,
especially when evaluating the economic advantages of its regulation
and taxation. Currently, Americans face dim economic prospects. Since
the market crash of 2008, unemployment has remained staggeringly high
as businesses have either closed or moved overseas. The US's debt has
doubled in the past ten years, the poverty rate is the highest it has
been in 15, and, adjusted for inflation, the median income has hardly
moved since the 1950s.

Meanwhile, New York City spends $75m per year to enforce the
prohibition of marijuana. A recent study by the Drug Policy Alliance
shows that between 2002 and 2010, New York City spent between $350m
and $700m to arrest and charge people with low-level marijuana
possession. Against this background, the city presently debates which
schools to close and which public employees to lay off - decisions
that will only deepen the impact of the recession.

Another report estimates that nationwide government spending on
enforcing marijuana laws costs $7.7bn per year. A look at Montana,
however, shows how the state has been given a much needed bump from
the legalisation of medical marijuana. Since 2004, investors have put
millions of dollars into the newly legalised medical marijuana sector,
creating jobs for professional horticulturists, construction workers
and electricians put out of work by the recession. This small
marijuana industry created 1,400 jobs last year - this in a state with
less than a million people.

A change in US marijuana policy would mean significant savings. Full
legalisation would bring in an estimated $2.4bn annually if marijuana
were taxed like most consumer goods, and $6.2bn annually if it were
taxed at rates similar to those on alcohol and tobacco. In fact,
legalisation of marijuana - the cessation of prosecutions and tax
revenue - could put more than $13bn into government coffers. That
would equal the entire budget of the department of labour. Maybe with
a budget twice as large, it could focus on creating jobs and getting
Americans back to work.

Why should sick patients like Dolin continue to suffer without the
medical treatment they need? At a time when tens of millions of people
can't find work, and while pay and healthcare benefits are being cut,
why should our sick economy be deprived of so much needed revenue? On
this 40th anniversary of the failed drug war, we must, instead,
envision a drug policy that is patient-centred and fiscally
responsible - a policy that puts Americans first.