Drug Czar Warns of “Black Market” for Marijuana -- file under WTF (RE: CA legalization)

[nashville_brook]

http://elections.firedoglake.com/2010/07/19/drug-czar-warns-of-black-market-for-marijuana/


Drug Czar Warns of “Black Market” for Marijuana
By: Michael Whitney Monday July 19, 2010 10:02 am


Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske fears the creation of “a black market that would come into play” if California votes to legalize marijuana. Question for Kerli: what the hell would you consider the $45 billion annual industry in the US that exists despite marijuana prohibition? Kerlikowske made the curious remarks to NPR’s Michel Martin on Friday when questioned about the administration’s stance on marijuana legalization. Here’s a transcript of the exchange:

MARTIN: One of the arguments, though, that many people make is that just our whole philosophy toward drug use is just flawed, that there are those who of course who favor a dramatic liberalization of drug laws.

That they argue really the issue is prohibition and that if we have the same attitude toward illegal drugs now that we had to with prohibition, it didn’t work then, it’s not going to work now. And what do you say to that?

Mr. KERLIKOWSKE: Well, we know that certainly California is poised to and will be voting on legalizing small amounts of marijuana. And that vote is scheduled for November of this year.

(snip)


If marijuana were legalized, regulated, and taxed, as California’s Prop 19 would do, the “black market” that currently exists for the sale of marijuana would be largely irrelevant. A black market exists, by definition, for illegal transactions. Prop 19 would bring this huge industry out of the shadows, where the millions of current marijuana users could make their purchases from legitimate, regulated businesses, as opposed to from dealers that more likely than not buy their pot from Mexican drug cartels. Those cartels, in turn, would see their cash crop of marijuana dry up and defund the rest of the cartels’ dirty work. Marijuana legalization is the ultimate killer of black markets.

The second part of the Drug Czar’s argument seems to be that if marijuana were legalized, California wouldn’t see much, if any, tax revenue; that marijuana usage would increase; and that people would evade taxes on marijuana. All those false conclusions appear to be based on a recent study from the RAND Corporation. That study blared dire headlines about the use and cost of marijuana, though the substance of the study stated quite differently.

An analysis of the study by Drug War Rant found that the study’s author’s grossly spinned the actual findings.

There have been a lot of media reports in the past few days talking about the new RAND study that shows how California legalization will result in as much as an 80% decrease in marijuana prices and doubling of marijuana use.

Except, of course, that the RAND report doesn’t really say that at all.

It’s a 55 page report with lots of interesting stuff in it, but when it comes to an actual projection of change in marijuana use with legalization, they have absolutely no idea.

(snip -- read the rest at link)