The economics of marijuana

There seems to be this notion floating around the internet that a marijuana tax would pull in a lot of money, but we're not in the 1930s anymore, and no tax on an intoxicant is going to make a dent in the economy. There would be some savings on the justice end, with reduced police and violence due to the illegal marijuana trade, but the American justice system already doesn't spend all that much resources on enforcing marijuana crimes.

Now if you wanna start talking about heroin and cocaine – where you would see extraordinary savings on law enforcement (in America, most crime is drug crime) and public health (heroin overdoses are almost always caused by prohibition, not the drug itself), then you might have a point.