preface: This is not an arguement for or against legalization of marijuana.
I'm just a laissez faire armchair economist. My personal mantra is to "live and let live". The common notion is that we cannot legislate behavior, but only how the behavior affects other people. Personally, I believe that wrongly prescribed anti-depressant are more harmful than marijuana, although marijuana is said to be worse for your lungs than tobacco. But then again, it's not my place to tell the barfly what they're doing to their liver. Not after a bad day.
Legalizing marijuana can benefit a microeconomy. It can benefit the economy for a few. Cannibis can relieve our stress in lieu of the economy.
Studies have shown that vices can do well in a bear market and it also goes to show that prohibition does not work. Just recently, stock for vices went up during market dives. Also, prescriptions such as sleeping aids have gone up just recently.
http://adage.com/article?article_id=135037
"Prescriptions Rise as Economy Keeps People Up at Night, Even Though Marketing Spend Is Down
By Rich Thomaselli Published: March 04, 2009
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- You snooze, you lose? Not for some pharmaceutical companies seeing big sales jumps for sleep aids and antidepressants, despite lower marketing spending in both categories..."
When we discuss an economic fix, we're discussing a cure. If a fleshwound requires two different antibiotics, a tetanus shot and an ointment; just applying the ointment isn't enough to heal the wound. Marijuana is that ointment. Please note: This post isn't intended to discredit the ointment, just to mention that the ointment isn't enough on a macro-economic scale.
About the cannabis markets.
Throughout the country, potted marijuana is estimated to be a $35 billion dollar economy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agriculture_in_the_United_States
In California, marijuana is a $14 billion dollar economy.
http://www.nhpr.org/node/16858
Sales could go up if buyers can use credit to purchase the item.
However, anyone who believes that pot could "save the economy" fails to realize how badly our economy is struggling right now. (Maybe that's the point, it's not a pleasant discussion.)
The current account deficit is $600 billion plus interest. $35 billion isn't enough. Pot is also an import so that would send money out of the country. We would need to legalize homegrown crack cocaine, home grown heroine and locally made shrooms and LSD to come up; stop importing it then sell exports. Marco Polo made a nice profit selling Opium to the Chinese. Well that was the reason why China became an isolationist country. He was onto something.
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