Before Doug Fine sent his final manuscript to his editor on November 15, 2011, DrugSense's Drug War Clock read $35,695,718,424 spent for the year (state and federal). The economic effect alone cannabis has on the U.S. economy is so significant that anything less than legalization is a let-down to the American people. After legalization, Harvard economics professor Jeffrey Miron predicts the tax benefit at $46.7 billion annually, with $41.3 billion additionally let loose into the economy in saved enforcement and incarceration costs. That's nearly a $100,000,000 dollar swing each year. Theoretically, cannabis and the "new green economic revolution" can help push the U.S. federal deficit out of the red and into the black in a respectable number of years, unless of course the U.S. federal government continues to ignore facts and deny cannabis research.
In January 2012, U.S. Attorney Haag's office directly threatened the Mendocino County government with lawsuits and officials with racketeering charges if local legislators didn't kill the Zip-Tie program immediately. This is just another example of the feds threatening another reliable revenue stream that reached an annual 2011 total revenue of over $600,000. Supervisor Hamburg told Willits News, "I am way too knowledgeable about the budgetary situation of our county to think we can carry a lawsuit against the federal government." On January 24, the County Board of Supervisors voted four to one to eliminate the permitting part of the 9.31 program; the part of the program that helped build the local county economy the most was put to death by our federal government. As the Drug War continues, it is fair to predict the road to cannabis legalization will be a bumpy ride as it has been since Reagan's administration.
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