Using Alcohol to Demonize Marijuana Newest Cop Gambit
By Lanny Swerdlow, RN
In the upcoming initiative campaign to tax and regulate cannabis, you will be inundated by false, misleading and self-serving statements from opponents. One of the most egregious you will hear ad nauseam is that marijuana use causes significant health and social problems.
In a recent speech to the California Police Chiefs Assn., U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske stated “. . . the social costs of legalizing marijuana would outweigh any possible tax that could be levied.” When state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s bill to tax and regulate cannabis like alcohol was heard before the Public Safety Committee of the California Assembly, the sea-of-blue opposition present at the hearing intoned the same mantra. In both cases, they justified their statements by pointing to the social and health costs of alcohol, which is like comparing apples to oranges—although a more apt comparison would be a Big Mac to a fruit salad.
At least they acknowledged that the taxes raised from the legal sale of cannabis would be significant and would put a major dent in California’s staggering budget deficit. But their claims, made with totally straight and stern faces, that the health and social costs of allowing the recreational use of marijuana would dwarf the amount of taxes raised are bogus.
A study conducted by researchers from the Centre for Addictions Research of British Columbia at the University of Victoria and the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse at the University of Ottawa found that health-related costs per user are eight times higher for consumers of alcohol than they are for those who use cannabis. Tobacco is even worse, with a cost factor 40 times higher.
Looking at the use of these substances in relation to healthcare costs, the report stated that “In terms of costs per user: tobacco-related health costs are over $800 per user, alcohol-related health costs are much lower at $165 per user and cannabis-related health costs are the lowest at $20 per user.”
The report noted that the $20 cost for cannabis use was primarily “enforcement-related.” Law enforcement is determined to drive those costs even higher. Even though police claim that they have no choice but to enforce marijuana prohibition laws, they are always up in Sacramento and other state legislatures pressuring for more and more draconian anti-marijuana laws. Of course, they also push for more money to fight this scourge that they claim so drastically affects the physical and mental health of the community that “the social costs of legalizing marijuana would outweigh any possible tax that could be levied.”
Unlike cannabis, the social and health costs of alcohol consumption are enormous. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism pegs the annual social and health costs of alcohol use at $185 billion. Taxes raised from alcohol sales do not even come close to that amount, but there is no push by law enforcement to return to alcohol prohibition.
Far from increasing healthcare costs, the use of cannabis can significantly reduce these costs. One of the major reasons is because people who consume cannabis significantly reduce their consumption of alcohol—many refraining from drinking at all. Although this would result in a significant reduction in taxes raised from alcohol, taxes on cannabis would make up for most it.
The proven ability of cannabis to reduce stress would lead to enormous reductions in healthcare costs associated with ailments such as cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, digestive problems and mental impairments.
In addition, the legendary uses of cannabis to relieve pain, anxiety, depression and insomnia would significantly reduce the need for prescription pharmaceuticals. This would result in staggering healthcare cost savings, not to mention the savings in the health of the patient by significantly reducing the number of prescription pharmaceuticals they take—with many patients not even having to take them in the first place.
The losses to the giant pharmaceutical corporations will be equally staggering—so staggering that you might want to consider selling your shares of Pfizer and Merck when the Cannabis Tax and Regulate Initiative passes.
The drug czar is wrong. Legalizing cannabis will reduce harmful social problems, not exacerbate them, and it will yield enormous tax revenues to provide essential government services. Although the amount of money raised by taxing the licensed and regulated use of cannabis will amount to billions of dollars, the amount of savings in reduced healthcare costs will dwarf the amount of taxes raised. Combining the savings with the additional tax revenue and the savings in not having any marijuana prohibition laws to enforce will easily surpass $100 billion.
Lanny Swerdlow, RN, is director of the Marijuana Anti-Prohibition Project, a medical-marijuana patient support group and law reform organization. Contact him at (760) 799-2055 or lanny@marijuananews.org.
