Budgets/Taxes/Economics

Humboldt's Marijuana Growers Team Up to Go Legit

America's most renowned bastion of illicit marijuana growing is threatened by cavernous, city-taxed cultivation warehouses soon to be licensed in Oakland. It is alarmed by cities from La Puente to Berkeley to Sacramento that approved taxes on dispensaries or endorsed medical marijuana cultivation, sanctioning a marijuana economy wider and more competitive than ever. Humboldt seeks to save itself by going legit -- the new Humboldt Growers Association is working for county approval to license and tax outdoor pot plantations of up to 40,000 square feet.

Medical Marijuana Sales Tax Nets $2.2 Million for Colorado This Year

Medical marijuana dispensaries are now putting hundreds of thousands of dollars a month into state and city treasuries in Colorado. So far this year, the state has collected more than $2.2 million in sales tax from dispensaries.

Northern California Cities Bring Marijuana Growing Into the Light

As numerous cities get set to levy voter-approved taxes on medical marijuana retailers, some municipalities in northern California are already moving aggressively toward creating government-sanctioned marijuana farms to help supply them. Cities hope to rake in even more tax revenue from medical marijuana cultivation, which has remained in the shadows although it has been legal in the state since 1996.

Feature: Two Marijuana Legalization Initiatives Have Been Filed in California for Next Year's Ballot

It appears increasingly likely that Californians will have a chance to vote on marijuana legalization next year. Two initiatives have been filed, one that would create legalization, one that would create semi-legalization. Is now the right time? Opinion in the movement is divided.

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Election 2010 and US Drug Policy in Latin America [FEATURE]

Will US drug policy in Latin America change for the better or the worse after the 2010 elections? Or will it stay the same? We ask the analysts.

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Cops Say Yes to California Marijuana Legalization Measure [FEATURE]

As the clock ticks toward election day, the battle over Proposition 19 in California is heating up. This week, law enforcement spoke out for marijuana legalization.

Growth of Ex-Offender Population in United States Is a Dramatic Drag on Economy (Press Release)

For Immediate Release:November 15, 2010
Contact: Alan Barber, (571) 306-2526

Washington, D.C.- Three decades of harsh criminal justice policies have created a large population of ex-offenders that struggle in the labor market long after they have paid their debts to society, according to a new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). Because prison records and felony convictions greatly lower ex-offenders' chances of finding work, the United States loses between $57 billion and $65 billion a year in lost output.

“It isn't just that we have the highest incarceration rate in the world, we have created a situation over the last 30 years where about one in eight men is an ex-offender,” said John Schmitt, a Senior Economist at CEPR and a co-author of the report.

The new report, “Ex-offenders and the Labor Market,” found that in 2008 there were between 5.4 million and 6.1 million ex-prisoners and between 12.3 million and 13.9 million ex-felons in the United States. Over 90 percent were men.

In 2008, about one in 33 working-age adults was an ex-prisoner, and about one in 15 working-age adults was an ex-felon. Among working-age men in that same year, about one in 17 was an ex-prisoner and one in eight was an ex-felon.

Because ex-offenders face substantial barriers to employment, the authors estimate that the large ex-offender population in 2008 lowered employment that year by the equivalent of 1.5 million to 1.7 million workers.

"The rise in the ex-offender population overwhelmingly reflects changes in the U.S. criminal Justice system, not changes in underlying criminal activity," says Schmitt. "We incarcerate an astonishing share of non-violent offenders, particularly for drug-related offenses. We have far better ways to handle these kinds of offenses, but so far common sense has not prevailed."

The report warns that in the absence of reforms to the criminal justice system, the share of ex-offenders in the working-age population will rise substantially in coming years, increasing the magnitude of employment and output losses estimated for 2008.

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Budget Cutters Eye Controversial National Drug Intelligence Center

Newly-elected Republicans coming to Washington this week to slash the federal budget are taking note of a tiny federal agency in the rusting steel town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania -- the National Drug Intelligence Center, a pet project of the late Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa). Conceived in the early 1990's as a clearinghouse for all of the intelligence in the nation's war on drugs, the agency was installed on the fifth floor of a defunct department store. For years, Murtha lavished federal dollars on the little agency, even as it struggled to find a mission and critics blasted it as unnecessary.

LA City Council Pushes for Medical Marijuana Tax on March Ballot

The Los Angeles City Council pushed for a ballot measure to begin taxing medical marijuana. There are cities in California that tax medical marijuana, such as San Jose, La Puente, Oakland, Richmond, Sacramento, and Berkeley. With a vote of 9-3 the Los Angeles City Council has informed city attorneyâs to draft a ballot measure for the March 8 election in favor of taxing marijuana.

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The Republican House and Drug Reform: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly [FEATURE]

With the Republicans taking over the House, the landscape of Capitol Hill drug reform has shifted, mainly for the worse. But not entirely.

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