Taxing And Regulating Cannabis Could Yield $14 Billion In Annual Savings And Revenue, Study Says

Boston, MA: Enforcing state and federal marijuana laws costs taxpayers an estimated $7.7 billion annually, according to a report released this week by visiting Harvard University economics professor, Jeffrey Miron, and endorsed by more than 500 economists.

The report, entitled "Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States," estimates that legalizing marijuana would save state and local governments $5.3 billion annually, while saving the federal government $2.4 billion.  A previous analysis of marijuana arrest expenditures published by the NORML Foundation in March estimated that enforcing marijuana prohibition, primarily at the state level, costs approximately $7.6 billion per year.

Miron's report also estimates that legalizing cannabis would yield $6.2 billion in annual revenue if it were taxed at rates comparable to those imposed upon alcohol and tobacco.

"We ... urge the country to commence an open and honest debate about marijuana prohibition," states an open letter accompanying the report, signed by over 500 economists, including Stanford University's Milton Friedman.  "We believe such a debate will favor a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods.  At a minimum, this debate will force advocates of current policy to show that prohibition has benefits sufficient to justify the cost to taxpayers, foregone tax revenues, and numerous ancillary consequences that result from marijuana prohibition."

A previous survey published in the April 2004 issue of the journal Econ Journal Watch found that most US economists believe that current drug prohibition strategies are ineffective and favor liberalizing American drug policies.

Full text of the report, "Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition in the United States," is available online at: http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/mironreport.html

Cannabinoid Neuroprotective Against Cerebral Infarction, Study Says

Fukuoka, Japan: Administration of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) is neuroprotective against cerebral infarction (localized cell death in the brain) in mice, according to clinical trial data published in the May issue of the journal Stroke.

"Treatment of cannabidiol ... significantly reduced the infarct volume ... in mice" in a dose dependent manner, a research team at Fukuoka University's Department of Neuropharmacology concluded.  Authors speculated that CBD "exerts a neuroprotective effect through its anti-oxidant, anti-spasmodic, and anti-emetic activity, [as well as through] vasorelaxation."

Researchers at the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) have previously reported that cannabinoids are neuroprotective in animals against brain damage caused by alcohol and/or stroke.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500.  Full text of the study, "Cannabidiol prevents cerebral infarction," is available in the May issue of the journal Stroke.

International News

from Radical Bulletins by the Transnational Radical Party eBulletins [www.radicalparty.org ] ) hosted by The International Antiprohibitionist League (http://www.antiprohibitionist.org/)

26/05/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / AUSTRIA
CONSUMPTION
DIE PRESSE (Vienna)
The director of Vienna’s Drug Consultancy, Dr. Hans Haltmayr, speaking at a conference of physicians, reported that ten per cent of the country’s population are addicted to alcohol whilst only one per cent are slaves to opiates.  But fully seventy per cent have experimented with cannabis.

27/05/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
JUSTICE
THE BELFAST TELEGRAPH / ABC
A Court of Appeal Has rejected an application for the use of cannabis as a pain reliever on the reasoning that the perpetration of one evil is not justified because it may diminish another.  Three judges voted thus in the case of five persons who had been fined or sentenced to social labours for having imported and used marijuana.

30/05/2005
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA - Alberta
JUSTICE
CANOE NEWS
Grant Krieger, forefront fighter for the therapeutic use of marijuana, was convicted last December by a court of Appeals for trafficking and producing marijuana -- twenty-nine plants were found on his property.  He used the substance to relieve the pain of victims of multiple sclerosis.  He will now ask the Supreme Court to intervene.

30/05/2005
SOUTH AMERICA / BRAZIL
LEGALISATION
FOLHA
Minstrel singer and Culture Minister Gilberto Gil says that he began smoking marijuana in the nineteen-seventies and to have quit when he turned fifty.  ‘Why should it be prohibited?’ he asks.  Drugs ought to be reconsidered strictly in the light of public health, not criminal law.

20/05/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM -- London POLITICS
THE INDEPENDENT
The new chief of Scotland Yard, Sir Ian Blair, opposes the government’s plan to re-upgrade cannabis to an arrestable offence.  ‘Arresting people for small quantities is a waste of time and resources’, he said.

21/05/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / NETHERLANDS
POLITICS
THE SCOTSMAN
‘Drug tourists’ number about one and a half million annually.  To combat this collateral effect of Holland’s tolerant policies, the government are considering limiting access to the ‘coffee shops’ to Dutch citizens only.  A pilot programme will get under way in Maastricht this summer.

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