RS 6: An Economist Gets Stoned

This blog post is my analysis on the economic podcast “An Economist Gets Stoned,” by Planet Money. This podcast appeared on the Planet Money website on January 27, 2010. During this podcast the topic of the legalization of marijuana is discussed on how  the prices will be effected. Lately more states have implemented the law of issuing legal marijuana. The most recent is here in Connecticut. The question being asked is will the prices of "black market" marijuana increase or decrease due to the legalization of it. People want marijuana to be legal to increase government revenues. People believe that it can bring in as much as one billion dollars. Harvard Economist Jeffrey Miron on the other hand does not believe it will. 

In my opinion I believe marijuana should be legalized. If it has the potential to make us all this money why not give it a try and help the economy out. You have all these other drugs like alcohol legal and the consequences are just as bad. They should have an age limit on purchasing marijuana like alcohol and cigarettes though. Like any other drug or substance people know the effects of taking it and make their own choices. The government is not telling people to smoke weed, but offering it to people who would like to. You do not hear as many people overdosing on marijuana as you do as alcohol either. Even though marijuana is illegal now it is still present all over. One reason is the reason of law enforcement that limit what is coming into our country. As stated in the podcast also, these officers are not punished for drugs coming in past them. They are not effected in any way being they are not competition for these dealers. If they do not want to legalize it that bad than make more of effort to keep it out. On the other hand if it is legalized, then the law enforcement that are being paid for these purposes will not have  to be hired. The government will save money here and make money selling it. If I had the option i would give it a trial run and see how it goes. If it does not work as planned go back to what has been working and stop talking about it.