ABSTRACT
A common argument for legalizing marijuana is that it would save the criminal justice system time and resources. Indeed, estimates of the cost of enforcing California’s marijuana laws featured prominently in the debate about Proposition 19. Some advocates cited research claiming that legalization would save California $1 billion in criminal justice expenditures. 2 This chapter finds that such estimates are too high by at least a factor of five. Also, although these figures are sometimes presented as a potential savings to taxpayers, it may be more realistic to think in terms of allowing these resources to be redirected toward other types of crime.
