An Analysis of Marijuana Policy (1982) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 17-28
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From page 17... ...
The advantages of a policy of regulation include the disappearance of most illegal market activity, the savings in economic and social costs of law enforcement directed against illegal supply systems, better controls over the quality and safety of the product, and, possibly, increased credibility for warnings about risks. The major disadvantages are a consequence of increased marijuana use -- increases in harm to physical health and to individual development and behavior.
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From page 18... ...
, about three-fourths of the total is spent enforcing the law against marijuana supply. The total federal drug abuse law enforcement budget was more than $400 million in 1979, about half of which was the budget for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
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From page 19... ...
The National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse cited a Department of Agriculture estimate that in 1972 there were 5 million acres containing wild marijuana in the United States and an undetermined but obviously growing number of acres under cultivation. Law enforcement costs are by no means the only costs of prohibition of supply.
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From page 20... ...
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From page 21... ...
Costs of Regulating Supply The wide availability and use of marijuana are not only major factors in the cost of attempts to prohibit the supply of the drug, they also have implications for the likely magnitude of increases in use that could be expected under a regulatory policy. Greater use of marijuana under a regulatory policy is regarded as the most significant cost of much a policy.
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From page 23... ...
(1979) report that a 1975 national survey by the Drug Abuse Council found that at least 70 percent of the high school students in their sample reported marijuana "easy to get,- and O'Donnell et 81e (1976)
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From page 24... ...
As we have noted, however, it is a fact that marijuana is already widely available despite the legal prohibition of supply and that, despite the best efforts of government under any foreseeable set of conditions, it will continue to be. Though a regulatory policy would increase the availability of the drug, estimates of the size of these increases, and associated increases in harm, must be weighed against estimates of the costs and weaknesses of continuing prohibitions of supply.
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From page 25... ...
The possibility of illegal markets selling to young people remains, but today's kind of illegal market for marijuana would probably shrink greatly under a regulatory system in the same way that illegal alcohol distribution systems have become so scarce. Young users would be much more likely to gain access to marijuana by diversion from the legal market-as they do today for alcohol -- or from homegrown plants than from a wholly illegal chain of distributors.
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From page 26... ...
A recent British study of options for marijuana control (Logan, 1979) suggests that, from a law enforcement perspective, it is not feasible to attempt to control home cultivation.
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From page 27... ...
Research on the communication of messages to the public has identified source credibility as a major factor contributing to the persuasive power of a message (McGuire, 1969~. It appears that the public is now extremely wary of some government information programs that attempt to influence health behaviors.
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From page 28... ...
In this area of uncertainty, we may learn from experiment. If one regulatory system proved successful, other states would be more likely to adopt similar systems; similarly, if it worked poorly in one state, other states would be less inclined to adopt a regulatory policy.
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