Quote:
Originally Posted by Jefe
Actually, I was thinking more about the tail end of things, at incarceration. If our prisons are "half full" (ficticious number) of marijuana offenders, legalizing it would mean we only need half as many prisons, half as many prison guards, etc...
I'm just kinda thinking out loud on all of this, I have no real numbers. Also, I know that many in law enforcement are for legalization. I guess I just find it hard to believe that marijuana will ever be legal. When you've been wishing for something for decades with no results, it's kinda hard to believe your wish will ever come true.
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The prison guard angle is an interesting one. Since there are certainly a lot of people tasked with guarding people incarcerated for criminal drug possession, those jobs might go away. However, I wouldn't view that as a huge barrier, since those jobs in particular could be swapped over to something like beefing up border security or homeland security in general.
I doubt that the state and fed governments would simply say, "well, let's get rid of all these prisoners and lay off the prison guards."
Also, since a prison guard produces no useful good or service from an economic standpoint, the only greater impact of the loss of such a job would be the lack of their dollars creating market demand (and perhaps the cost of welfare/unemployment).