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Dedicated to ending marijuana prohibition in Rhode Island |
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Alternatives: Moving away from criminalizationIn recognition of the shortcomings of prohibition, reformers have suggested two alternative policies: decriminalization and tax and regulate (T&R). Taxing and regulating the sale of marijuana is the state's best choice. Moving in this direction would stop the damage being done by marijuana prohibition every day to our communities and our budget. On the other hand, decriminalization would significantly reduce, but not eliminate, this damage. Decriminalization
DecriminalizationAlthough there are many different models of decriminalization, what they have in common is that marijuana remains illegal, but possession of small quantities is downgraded from a criminal offense to a civil offense. Decriminalizing marijuana in Rhode Island would help to reduce the number of non-violent offenders in our criminal justice system and somewhat curtail prohibition costs. However, limited resources would still be used to investigate and arrest marijuana distributors while other crimes remain unsolved. Only a T&R policy can create revenue and growth in addition to reducing costs. Around the worldDecriminalization is a tried and tested policy. Modern democracies are increasingly choosing decriminalization over prohibition; the United States is falling behing the rest of the world on marijuana policy. The following geopolitical entites have all (at least) decriminalized the possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal, private use.
Studies of decriminalizationThere is a growing concensus among experts that decriminalization does not lead to higher use of marijuana, as evidence by numerous studies on the topic. "In sum, there is little evidence that decriminalization of marijuana use necessarily leads to a substantial increase in marijuana use." "...reducing the penalties for marijuana has virtually no effect on either choice or fequency of the use of alcohol or illegal 'harder' drugs such as cocaine." "There is no strong evidence that decriminalization affects either the choice or frequency of use of drugs, either legal (alcohol) or illegal (marijuana and cocaine)." "In contrast with marijuana use, rates of other illicit drug use among ER patients were substantially higher in states that did not decriminalize marijuana use. The lack of decriminalization might have encouraged greater use of drugs that are even more dangerous than marijuana." "The available evidence indicates that the decriminalization of marijuana possession had little or no impact on rates of use." "The Dutch experience, together with those of a few other countries with more modest policy changes, provides a moderately good empirical case that removal of criminal prohibitions on cannabis possession (decriminalization) will not increase the prevalence of marijuana or any other illicit drug; the argument for decriminalization is thus strong." "Fear of apprehension, fear of being imprisoned, the cost of cannabis or the difficulty in obtaining cannabis do not appear to exert a strong influence on decisions about cannabis consumption... " "The different laws which govern the use and sale of marijuana do not appear to have resulted in substantially different outcomes if we view those outcomes solely in terms of consumption patterns." "While the Dutch case and other analogies have flaws, they appear to converge in suggesting that reductions in criminal penalties have limited effects on drug use, at least for marijuana."
Tax and regulate (T&R)Under T&R, it is legal for businesses to grow, manufacture, and distribute marijuana as long as they report their revenues to the appropriate tax boards and follow marijuana regulations and other laws. A recent CNN report estimates tax revenues from Rhode Island marijuana to be $4.6 million per year - this is in addition to the millions saved in criminal justice costs. A T&R policy will not only curtail criminal justice spending, but also eliminate the black market for marijuana. Criminal enterprises currently involved in marijuana distribution will not be able to bring their marijuana businesses to the legal market, and their absence will create jobs for law-abiding farmers, wholesalers, and retailers. This new market will be subject to regulations such as safety guidelines and minimum age restrictions - rules that can't exist under prohibition. Other regulations will most likely include measures to prevent advertising for marijuana products as well as measures to discourage users from geting behind the wheel of a car, among many others. There is no reason that regulatory techniques currently used for alcohol and tobacco won't work for marijuana. Interestingly, Rhode Island already has a tax on the books for marijuana. Due to marijuana's illegal status, though, the collected revenue from this tax is negligible. Economic estimates of marijuana taxation revenuePredicting tax revenue is a difficult task, and the lack of data on black market transactions makes doing so for marijuana all the more imprecise. Estimates by economists of potential tax revenue if the United States were to tax and regulate marijuana range from a conversative $6 billion to over $200 billion. We estimate that this corresponds to a range of $4.6 to $157 million annually if Rhode Island were to switch to a T&R policy. Jon Gettman's report estimates $31.1 billion in tax revenue for all federal, state, and local governments in the US. Using a simple percentage method (by number of marijuana users), we estimate $8.6 million in tax revenues for Rhode Island based on this report. Jeffrey Miron, Harvard economist, estimates a more conservative $4.6 million in annual tax revenue if Rhode Island were to tax marijuana sales. In his honors thesis for the Brown University Department of Economics, Max Chaiken effectively argues that Gettman and Miron's studies underestimate potential revenue from marijuana taxation. Instead, he calculates $211 billion in annual revenue for the entire United States. We estimate that this equates to $157 million annually for Rhode Island.
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RICIMP | PO Box 2602, Providence, RI 02906 | info[at]rimarijuana.org | Copyright 2009 |
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