Few people are as knowledgeable at understanding economic policy and implementing institutional change than Robert Reich. He is, after all, a man who served in the administrations under Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton, while also assisting on Barack Obama’s economic transition advisory board. For his time as Secretary of Labor under Clinton, TIME Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries in the 20th century.
So when that guy says it’s time to end the federal prohibition of marijuana, maybe the powers-that-be will finally listen up. Reich points to the overwhelming statistics that demonstrate how criminalizing marijuana is a net-negative for the country. He cites how marijuana arrests outpace those for all violent crimes combined (like murder, rape, and robbery) while referencing research that a federal marijuana tax comparable to those placed on cigarettes and alcohol could pull in $6 billion a year.
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“Just as with the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s, the federal prohibition of marijuana has been unnecessarily cruel, wasting billions of dollar, unjustly harming millions of lives, and furthering racist policies,” Reich says. “It’s time to legalize marijuana.”
You can watch the full video below.
