Costs of legalizing marijuana

California may become the first state to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana, as the NY Times reported on Oct. 27, in anticipation of a hearing by the California State Assembly the next day. In an article yesterday on the hearing held before the Committee on Public Safety, The Sacramento Bee stated, "Testimony revealed layers of complexity."

Among the testfiers was Rosalie Liccardo Pacula of the RAND Corporation. She discussed four areas affecting either potential revenue or cost:

1. Legalizing marijuana would drop its price considerably, more than the 50% in current revenue estimates.
2. The proposal to tax marijuana at $50/ounce is not realistic; to deter the black market requires the state to let the price of marijuana fall to an amount close to production that will mean a smaller tax revenue.
3. Current estimates of price are not useful for predicting a change in consumption because demand elasticities apply to small changes in price and there would be a large price drop with legalization.
4. "The Board of Equalization’s estimate of $1.4 billion potential revenue for the state is based on a series of assumptions that are in some instances subject to tremendous uncertainty and in other cases not validated."

Legalizing Marijuana: Issues to Consider Before Reforming California State Law (pdf, 8pp/170kB)

Substance use and workplace injuries

The RAND Center for Health and Safety in the Workplace published a paper on the effect of substance use on occupational injuries. In examining the literature, the authors found these emergent themes:

• The impact of substance use on occupational injuries varies by age and gender, which may reflect differing rates of substance use and job hazards across these groups.
• There is also variation in substance use, occupational injuries, and the association between the two across different industries.
• Other factors related to alcohol and substance use, such as social structures and level of risk aversion, may better explain injury than alcohol and substance use do.
• Even where correlations between alcohol and drug use and injury are significant, only a small proportion of occupational injuries can be attributed to alcohol and drug use.
• Few studies look at the cost to industry of off-the-job worker injuries through disability and absenteeism. This may, in fact, be a bigger concern.

The authors conclude that there is an association between substance use and occupational injury, and this association is stronger for males and in certain industries, and may also be stronger for younger workers.

The proportion of injuries caused by substance use, however, is relatively small. Instead, there is mounting evidence that harmful substance use is one of a constellation of behaviors exhibited by certain individuals who may avoid work-related safety precautions and take greater work-related risks. Thus, we suspect that it is more likely that risk-taking dispositions, often termed deviance proneness, and other omitted factors can explain most empirical associations between substance use and injuries at work.

The Effects of Substance Use on Workplace Injuries, June 5, 2009
      Report (pdf, 55pp/345kB)
      Overview

Recent CRS reports

Recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports from Open CRS:

Legal Issues Relating to State Health Care Regulation: ERISA Preemption and Fair Share Laws, RL34637 (pdf, 18pp/124kB), August 26, 2008

Fair share laws require employers to pay for employee health coverage or contribute to a state or local fund for medical expenses for uninsured residents. Can fair share laws be preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)? This report covers cases brought in Maryland, Suffolk County (NY), and San Francisco challenging fair share laws under ERISA, with varying outcomes, and discusses the fair share requirements of Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act, "the most comprehensive health care reform legislation ever enacted by a state."


The Controlled Substances Act: Regulatory Requirements, RL34635 (pdf, 19pp/128kB), August 22, 2008

Through the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), administered and enforced by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the federal government regulates the production, possession, and distribution of controlled substances for medical, scientific, research, and industrial purposes. This report focuses on the non-criminal requirements of the CSA, noting the penalty provisions applicable to authorized persons handling controlled substances.

Governmental Drug Testing Programs: Legal and Constitutional Developments, RL34624 (pdf, 23pp/152kB), August 19, 2008

This report discusses workplace, employee, preemployment, student, and suspicionless drug tessting, and federally mandated workplace drug testing programs.


Text and Multimedia Messaging: Emerging Issues for Congress, RL34632 (pdf, 16pp/1.58 MB), August 22, 2008

The increasing use of text and multimedia messaging has raised several policy issues: applicability of CAN-SPAM Act to unwanted wireless messages; refusal of some carriers to allow users to disable text messaging; carrier blocking of Common Short Code messages; deceptive and misleading Common Short Code programs; protecting children from inappropriate content on wireless devices; mobile cyberbullying; and balancing user privacy with “Sunshine,” Open Government, and Freedom of Information Laws.

The report discusses the foregoing, as well as using Short Message Service for law enforcement and emergency response.

Wireless Technology and Spectrum Demand: Advanced Wireless Services, RS20993 (pdf, 6pp/72kB), August 12, 2008

From the perspective of spectrum management, a significant difference in the technologies is that 3G, 4G, and WiMAX services operate on designated, licensed frequencies, while Wi-Fi shares unlicensed spectrum with other uses. Policy issues before Congress include the competitive impact on commercial wireless carriers when municipalities offer wireless broadband services, promoting the development of broadband wireless access, and assuring the availability of appropriate spectrum for both licensed and unlicensed applications.

CRS reports on various bills in the 110th Congress relating to broadband.