Legalizing pot makes fiscal sense

Legalizing pot makes fiscal sense

Just recently the city of Chicago has decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. Instead of being arrested, a ticket will be issued for $200-$500.

This is part of a plan that is made to cut budget costs, by allowing officers to spend less time on the street. Chicago police arrested more than 18,000 people on small-time marijuana charges last year. Each arrest involves about four officers. These arrests tie up more than 45,000 police hours.

I don’t understand why Illinois doesn’t just legalize marijuana altogether for medical reasons. In California there is about 14 billion dollars of revenue per year in marijuana production. Taxing sales of marijuana has made California much more money than Illinois plans on saving by budget cuts.

If Illinois were to also make such moves as to legalizing medical marijuana, the amount of money made from taxes could ultimately pay for our criminal justice and education systems. This would be a way to supplement our criminal justice program with extra tax money so that pay cuts, and job cuts would not have to be made.

Steve Bus

Naperville