What if?

Last Friday The New York Times pondered a big what if question, "What Would Happen if Marijuana Were Decriminalized? A Freakonomics Quorum". Wanting to cover all aspects of the issue they presented five people from various backgrounds with a challenge.

to think about a national decriminalization of marijuana (unlikely, let’s be honest) and answer the following: What would be some of the most powerful economic, social, and criminal-justice effects?

Robert Platshorn also known as "The Black Tuna" tells part of his story. He was a marijuana smuggler back in the 70's; after spending 29 years of his life in prison he is working with NORML.

On May 2, 1979, a headline read “$300 Million Drug Ring Reported Cracked in Florida.” The “ring” consisted of my two partners and myself. We hadn’t made 10 percent of that, but the government had reasons for turning a couple of small fish into “The Black Tuna Gang.” Those were the early days of the DEA, and they needed to justify their mission and their budget.

Obviously the drug dealer is going to side with decriminalizing marijuana, so they also had an economist on their panel. In 2005 Jeff Miron completed "The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition". Currently he is the director of undergraduate studies, in Harvard University's economics department. In March of this year he contributed this article to CNN. In the beginning he talks about what decriminalization would do to our society.

Legalizing marijuana would produce important benefits for the United States.

Legalization would allow people who use marijuana, without harm to themselves or others, to do so without fear of arrest or incarceration. This is exactly what occurs now for alcohol and tobacco.

After discussing several benefits he wanted to end by exploring the things legalization wouldn't do.

One thing legalization would not do is produce a major increase in marijuana use; existing evidence suggests prohibition has only a modest impact. Alcohol consumption declined moderately but not dramatically during alcohol prohibition, for example.

A second thing legalization would not do is eliminate the bulk of violence, crime, and corruption induced by drug prohibition, since much of that relates to cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. To achieve the full benefits of legalization, policy must legalize all drugs.

Marijuana legalization is thus not a panacea; rather, it is a significant step in the direction of saner drug policy.