Editor’s note: This commentary is by Dean Whitlock, of Thetford, a freelance writer who has been researching the issues surrounding marijuana legalization for years. A former supporter of legalization, he is now opposed. He is a member of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM-VT)
[T]hink about all the tax money Vermont will get if we legalize commercial, tax-and-regulate marijuana.
I am.
But I want the facts. I don’t trust the profit-driven, multi-billion-dollar marijuana industry to tell me the truth.
Yes, our schools, police and health care providers need more money, but first we need to know the real cost of commercializing marijuana. That’s the real question: Can marijuana tax revenue actually cover all the costs to society?
If you consider the case of tobacco or alcohol, you have to say no.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse says tobacco cost our country $300 billion in 2010 in crime, lost work productivity and health care. The total revenue from tobacco taxes and fees was $17 billion. So for every dollar we gained, we spent $17.
For alcohol, we spent $40 for every dollar of revenue.
Marijuana won’t be any different.
Pot-legal Colorado leads the nation among 12- to 17-year-olds using marijuana and also using it for the first time. More use means more cost.
Since legalization there, hospitalizations related to marijuana increased over 70 percent. Emergency room visits spiked for both residents and tourists. More cost.
In 2016, Colorado’s crime rate grew 11 times higher than in the nation’s 30 largest cities. Organized crime and cartel activity skyrocketed from one organized crime filing in 2007, before legalization, to 40 by 2015. Cost.
Last year, the governor of Colorado requested an additional $16 million to build new housing for the homeless – that money to be diverted from the marijuana tax fund specifically set up to pay for building new schools. Cost.
In United States workplaces, from 2011 to 2015, there was a 178 percent rise in positive oral marijuana test results. Research shows a parallel rise in marijuana-associated accidents, injuries, absenteeism and discipline problems. Still more cost.
Marijuana tax revenue won’t begin to pay the real costs of commercialization.
But it’s not just about economics, it’s about people.
In Colorado, the percentage of all traffic deaths where the driver tested positive for marijuana is now twice what it was in 2010. The cost here? Forget lost productivity. Count the shattered families and lives cut short.
The cost of addiction? Broken families, ruined lives.
The cost of cognitive impairment and dropping out of school? Low quality jobs and lessened lives.
The cost of psychosis, or schizophrenia, or suicide attempts? Yes, the current science shows that marijuana can cause all three. We just don’t know who is most susceptible, or how to tally all the costs: financial, physical, emotional, social.
Fact is, it doesn’t matter how much tax revenue marijuana will bring in. Even if we could raise enough revenue to pay for all of the problems marijuana creates, that’s no reason to inflict the pain in the first place.
Vermont has already made it legal to possess, use, and grow marijuana. You can even “gift” it to friends and neighbors, and spread the costs. Please, let’s not push ourselves any deeper into debt.
