Drug Enforcement Pipe Dreams
from TomPaine.com
Aaron Houston
April 13, 2007
Aaron Houston is director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.
Americans' annual rush to file our tax returns—April 17 this year, due to quirks of the calendar—is a good time to think about how those dollars get used, and how they get wasted. No one, on the political left or the political right, likes the idea of pouring tax money into programs that are proven failures. And proven failure number one is America's war on marijuana.
Consider this: From 1982 to 2005, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression program seized over 103 million marijuana plants. In recent years, an average of over 33,000 cultivation sites per year have been eradicated, representing a massive investment of law enforcement dollars and effort. The result? According to federal government estimates, in roughly the same time period, annual U.S. marijuana production increased from 1,000 metric tons to 10,000 metric tons.
To put this in perspective, a study released late last year (based entirely on government figures) found that marijuana is America's number one cash crop by a whopping margin. With an estimated value of $35.8 billion in 2006, our marijuana crop exceeds the value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.45 billion) combined.
Imagine how politicians would react if this were a program to eradicate, say, unemployment. If after two and a half decades, the result were a 1,000 percent increase in unemployment, the howls of "big-government boondoggle!" would be heard all the way from Washington, D.C., to the next galaxy.
(Continued here.)
Aaron Houston
April 13, 2007
Aaron Houston is director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.
Americans' annual rush to file our tax returns—April 17 this year, due to quirks of the calendar—is a good time to think about how those dollars get used, and how they get wasted. No one, on the political left or the political right, likes the idea of pouring tax money into programs that are proven failures. And proven failure number one is America's war on marijuana.
Consider this: From 1982 to 2005, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression program seized over 103 million marijuana plants. In recent years, an average of over 33,000 cultivation sites per year have been eradicated, representing a massive investment of law enforcement dollars and effort. The result? According to federal government estimates, in roughly the same time period, annual U.S. marijuana production increased from 1,000 metric tons to 10,000 metric tons.
To put this in perspective, a study released late last year (based entirely on government figures) found that marijuana is America's number one cash crop by a whopping margin. With an estimated value of $35.8 billion in 2006, our marijuana crop exceeds the value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.45 billion) combined.
Imagine how politicians would react if this were a program to eradicate, say, unemployment. If after two and a half decades, the result were a 1,000 percent increase in unemployment, the howls of "big-government boondoggle!" would be heard all the way from Washington, D.C., to the next galaxy.
(Continued here.)
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