The High Cost of Prohibition of Marijuana

“A good case can be made that marijuana prohibition costs too much — in money, but also in ruined lives and harm done to society,” writes Alternet’s Bruce Mirkin. A Harvard economist’s study — that will be endorsed by the 92-year-old Milton Friedman and over 500 other economists — finds that “replacing prohibition with regulation would save $7.7 billion annually” in enforcement costs. Sales taxes could yield $2.4 to $6.2 billion. A billion here … a billion there … Adding up prohibition savings and revenues, Mirkin estimates in three years we’d have the $30 billion to secure thousands of Soviet-era “loose nukes.”