A Reader Asks How Much Money Could We Save By Ending The Drug War?

By VDARE.com Reader

04/20/2010

04/11/10 — A Nevada Reader Wonders If Harry Reid Is Of "Sound Mind"

From: [Anonymous]

Re: Donald A. Collins’s article Murder and Mayhem on the Mexican Border Exposes Futility Of Drug Prohibition

Have you done the following exercise?

Several arguments could be made: Taxes on drugs could be higher than the regular sales tax. There would need to be significant money spent at the outset to be sure that those that operated outside the system now operate inside the system (legally).

VDARE.com note: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, mentioned Donald A. Collins’s column, has in fact commissioned a study on these questions from Harvard University economist Jeffrey Miron in December2008. Professor Miron’s conservative estimates are online here.

By Edwin S. Rubenstein writes:

A few points pertaining to this letter:

Of course, drug prices would plummet under legalization. I would think a 50% or 75% reduction is possible — cutting revenues to the range of $875 mil. to $1.75 billion.

If it costs $100,000 to fund one Border Patrol Agent (salary, equipment, overhead, etc.) this amount could fund from 8,750 to 17,500 additional agents, easily doubling the current allocation of 9,500 agents along the southern border.

An increase in (now legal) drug use would raise revenues proportionately. I do not think there would be a big post-legalization surge, however. Indeed, much the allure is precisely because drugs are illegal — forbidden fruit.

One caveat: even a 5.4% tax on legal drugs could keep Mexican drug smugglers in the game — just as relatively minor differences in state tobacco taxes generate smuggling from low to high tax states.

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