Harvard Economist: Decriminalizing Marijuana Could Save Rhode Island $11 Million Annually

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                                                                 

MARCH 3, 2010

Harvard Economist: Decriminalizing Marijuana Could Save Rhode Island $11 Million Annually

Taxing and Regulating Marijuana Could Provide State With Up to $48 Million Per Year, According to Testimony Expected Thursday

CONTACT: Mike Meno, MPP assistant director of communications …… 202-905-2030 or [email protected]

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND — Tomorrow, Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron will testify before the state’s Marijuana Prohibition Study Commission and explain how changing the state’s current marijuana policies could save tens of millions of dollars annually, and even possibly generate additional tax revenue.

         According to Miron’s estimates, reducing the penalty for the possession of small amounts of marijuana to a civil fine would save Rhode Island roughly $11.1 million per year in reduced expenditures on police. Miron also estimates that taxing and regulating marijuana would save the state roughly $40.5 million per year in reduced expenditures on police, prosecutors, judges and prisons. Taxing and regulating marijuana could also generate roughly $7.6 million per year in new tax revenue, according to Miron.

         “Professor Miron’s estimates illustrate just one of the many reasons why Rhode Island lawmakers should consider changing the state’s disastrous prohibition on the nation’s largest cash crop,” said Robert Capecchi, a legislative analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project. “As lawmakers examine the economically unsound and wasteful policies that unnecessarily arrest, prosecute and incarcerate thousands of individuals simply for using a substance that is safer than alcohol, I hope they pay particular attention to Professor Miron’s findings, especially in these tough economic times.”

         WHAT: Meeting of Rhode Island’s Marijuana Prohibition Study Commission

         WHO: Prof. Jeffrey Miron, Department of Economics at Harvard University

         WHEN: Thursday, March 4, at 5 p.m.

         WHERE: Room 212 in the State House

         With more than 124,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.mpp.org.

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