Economics

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.

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 attorney’s to draft a ballot measure for the March 8 election in favor of taxing marijuana.

It has been a year since Prime Minister John Key declared war on the drug P (methamphetamine). The authorities, and Mr. Key, had hoped to see P prices rising as evidence that the anti-P campaign was working. But that hasn't happened.

As Californians go to the polls Tuesday night, they won't just be deciding the future of marijuana in their state - the vote may also rattle the booming B.C. bud industry. If the law passes, B.C.'s illegal pot industry - which generates between $3 billion and $7 billion a year - could take a big hit, says Darryl Plecas, a criminology professor at B.C.'s University of the Fraser Valley.

Marijuana users can go online and see what kind of bargain they’re getting from their marijuana dealer. The site, which has been online since September, compiles averages of marijuana prices for each state. A representative from the website says that the goal of www.priceofweed.com is simply to give marijuana users tools for assessing prices.

The Colorado State Board of Health approved a program through which poor medical marijuana patients can apply to the state registry for free and not have to pay sales tax on their cannabis purchases. But the standard the board approved for determining who is poor enough to qualify for the program upset medical marijuana advocates, who said some indigent patients will still be stuck with a bill. And even some board members expressed frustration that the health department — which has received millions of dollars in application fees since the medical marijuana program began — couldn't put together a program that includes more patients.

Ten years ago, Portugal became the first Western nation to pass full-scale, nationwide drug decriminalization. That law, passed October 1, 2000, abolished criminal sanctions for all narcotics — not just marijuana but also “hard drugs” like heroin and cocaine. By any metric, Portugal’s drug decriminalization scheme has been a resounding success.

Researchers say that if marijuana is legalized across the nation, there would be $8.7 billion in law enforcement savings and $8.7 billion in tax revenue. If all drugs are legalized, the savings figure becomes $46.7 billion and the revenue $41.3 billion. A budgetary benefit of $88 billion per year is not chump change, especially given the current state of the economy.