Dr. Jeffrey A. Miron, Economics professor at Harvard University, spoke about the legalization of drugs in America at the Willard building last night. Miron advocates drug legalization and has been researching it for 15 years.

The United States spends $41 billion each year on prohibition enforcement and forgoes $47 billion in tax dollars. Drug arrests account for 13 percent of all arrests. Miron proposes that the government legalize all drugs and tax them just like an everyday commodity.

Miron argued that drug laws in America are ineffective and that only harm comes from prohibition. Underground markets can’t use the legal system to solve disputes, therefore they resort to violence. Not to mention underground societies don’t exactly pay their taxes.

According to Miron people can recognize the harmful effects of drugs and rational people will weigh the effects with the benefits before trying anything.

Drugs are everywhere in America and the demand never decreases, Miron’s belief is that there is no reason to let black markets run the drug trade while missing out on potential tax dollars.

Miron is known for being a marijuana legalization activist and has appeared in several documentaries to show his support. According to Miron alcohol is a much more dangerous substance and the law is backwards.

Legalizing all drugs is a concept few people would agree with or could even fathom, but Miron makes several great points. I don’t know if having all drugs accessible is the answer, but the fact marijuana is still illegal in 2011 is simply laughable. Stop the decriminalization efforts and stop prescribing it as “medicine”. Legalize it, tax it, done deal.