The report, entitled “The Budgetary Impact of Ending Drug Prohibition,” estimates that taxing the commercial sale of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol would generate some $8.7 billion in annual revenue. The report further estimates that abolishing marijuana prohibition would additionally yield approximately $9 billion in annual law enforcement savings. Full text of the entire report is available for download here.

A previous 2005 study commissioned by NORML estimated that marijuana law enforcement cost taxpayers some $7.6 billion per year.

A separate California statewide analysis published in 2009 by the state Board of Equalization and Taxation estimated that imposing retail taxes on the commercial sale of cannabis in California would yield approximately $1.4 billion in yearly revenue.

An op/ed in favor of legalization by the CATO study’s co-author, Jeffrey Miron of Harvard University, appears in today’s Los Angeles Times here.

Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson will be arguing the appeal of my marijuana conviction for sharing a joint at the 2007 Boston Freedom Rally on the historic Boston Common with High Times associate publisher Rick Cusick. We both took the stand at our trial and testified under oath that we were certainly sharing a joint, and were protesting the constitutionality of the very marijuana laws under which we were arrested.

The state law under which Rick and I were prosecuted has since been modified by a voter initiative last fall removing all criminal penalties, and setting a $100 civil fine, for the possession of up to one ounce of pot in Massachusetts. Nonetheless, it would be great if we could convince the court of appeals that the private use of marijuana in Massachusetts, as it is in Alaska, is constitutionally protected conduct.

Keith Stroup, Esq.
NORML Legal Counsel