urt, and prison expenses, while the rest was used for treatment and education. In 1991, the most recent year for which data are available, state and local governments spent a total of nearly $16 billion, of which about 80%, or $12.5 billion, was used for enforcement, court, and prison costs. The total annual criminal justice system expenditure for federal, state, and local governments is $20.9 billion ($8.4 billion + $12.5 billion). Marijuana, as usual, is lumped in with all illegal drugs; so, specific drugs do not break down this total annual expenditure of nearly $21 billion. Since, marijuana crimes account for 44% of all drug arrests, it is estimated that the war on marijuana consumers costs taxpayers $9 billion annually (mpp.org). This means that, taxpayers are forced to pay billions of dollars to persecute, prosecute, and incarcerate individuals while the government continues to ignore more important issues (MLO). We could save billions of dollars every year as a nation if we stop wasting money, locking people up for having marijuana. In addition, if marijuana were legal, the government would be able to collect taxes on it, and would have a lot more money to pay for effective drug education programs and other important causes (MLO). According to Van bakel, marijuana is the United States' #1 cash crop producing annual sales of 32 billion. A 6% tax on this would generate 1.9 billion dollars a year for the government. Again, the federal budget would benefit from legalizing marijuana in two ways: Federal revenues would increase, because marijuana cigarettes would be taxed at the point of sale. The companies that make the cigarettes would also pay income taxes, adding to the federal coffers. Secondly, there would be a reduction in the amount spent on law enforcement efforts to apprehend and prosecute users and sellers of marijuana. The drug enforcement authorities might reduce their budget requests, or, more likely, focus m...
