Al Capone, El Chapo, and Ice Cream

Many have said that the only lasting result of Prohibition in the 1920's is organized crime in America. And that by following the same prohibition policy against cannabis, EVERY YEAR the federal government is ensures that an estimated $40 to $50 Billion in black market cash goes to violent criminals like El Chapo and his drug dealer networks, instead of to public health, education, infrastructure, and safety.

So when headlines like "the estimated market value of cannabis now tops that of ice cream" grab one's attention (or frozen pizza, or movie tickets - take your pick), it's critical to keep the broader impacts of legalization-and-regulation in mind.

A few thoughts about what $50Billion in sales COULD mean.

• More money for public health, education, infrasctructure and safety: In Colorado alone, $1B in legal cannabis sales in 2016 resulted in tax revenues of about $199M, which are being used for school construction, education, health services, public health and the environment, and the state general fund. See in mind, Colorado has about half as many people as Los Angeles.

• Savings in law enforcement: In New York City ALONE, 1 Million hours of police officers' time over 10 years were absorbed by simple possession cases - the equivalent of 31 police officers working eight hours a day, 365 days a year, for 11 years, making only cannabis possession arrests. The ACLU reports that over 7 million cannabis possession arrests were made between 2001 and 2010, during which time the states spent $3.6B in enforcing cannabis prohibition laws.

• Savings in prison terms for simple possession offenses: the FBI reports that more than 576,000 people were arrested in 2015 for simple possession, which is more than 1 arrest every minute, including those involved in state-legal dispensaries

• Job creation: Estimates show that between 165,000 and 235,000 full time and part time workers are employed in the legal cannabis industry. "To put this in perspective, there are now more [cannabis] workers than there are bakers or massage therapists in the United States"

• Revitalizing America's Poorest States: In southern states, $839,279,369 was spent in 2010 to arrest, prosecute and imprison people for cannabis. That's money and time that could be spent elsewhere. Also, "when looking at the 10 states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas... {cannabis] legalization would add over $710 million [annually] ... to state tax coffers." Adding those figures would gain $1.55B to southern economies every year.

• Health Benefits of Research and Treatment: Here is a list of 225 diseases and conditions for which cannabis has been used or shows promise. Also, a quick search of the National Institute of Health "PubMed" database shows over 25,000 studies have been done on marijuana (16,000+ on "cannabis")

• Total economic impact is many times the sales amount. Using econometric modeling software, the Marijuana Policy Group projects that the REAL impact of Colorado's $996M in 2015 legal cannabis sales include 18,000 jobs and $2.39B in total economic impact, with the additional benefit that the impacts occur within Colorado because of prohibition against crossing state lines.

Now that's a lot of ice cream.

image credit: Bud's Ice Cream of San Francisco