Death And Taxes

The United States has gone to pot. Last century we tried prohibition of alcohol but it didn't work. So we legalized it and collect taxes as it kills an estimated 88,000 people a year, including more than 10,000 in alcohol-related traffic accidents.

Effective today “recreational pot” is legal in California since it satisfies voters and brings in lots of tax dollars. It may make users “high” and increase the number of deaths, but it's estimated that it will bring in a billion dollars a year. It's well worth the trade-off – unless you're one of those who dies. We've given in to what we know is wrong, but we'll make a fortune from it. Like alcohol, hash is an important industry.

Sixteen other states (counting the nation's capital as a state) have marijuana on the dispensary – Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Washington, D.C. Perhaps it has some valid medical uses, but, more important, it has the support of voters and brings in lots of tax dollars.

Cigarettes have long been on the market. They're big business in our country. But, according to the CDC,

Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States, including more than 41,000 deaths resulting from secondhand smoke exposure. This is about one in five deaths annually, or 1,300 deaths every day. On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.

Smoking is the cause of innumerable illnesses, but who's counting. We make a fortune on the tobacco industry. Smoking is good for the economy. Other details are irrelevant. Risk and benefit are the forces that drive us. The “benefits?” Tax dollars, generous help from whatever industry and lobbyists have to offer immediately and in the next election, and the love and support of voters. The risks – whether for alcohol, cigarettes, or pot are usually either ignored (consciously by industry) or denied. “It'll happen to someone else.”

Legalizing pot, we're told, is no big deal. It leads to good feelings and joy. And money.

What's to fear? If there's a down side we'll worry about it later. And there won't be. “It'll happen to someone else.”

January 1, 2018