The real reason I supported decriminalizing recreational marijuana in South Dakota had nothing to do with me wanting to suck on a bong all day, my main argument besides the extra tax revenue which can be used for infrastructure and education is that it would save taxpayers millions each year in costs associated with justice and incarceration for possessing and ingesting a plant.
The real fight that our Governor has launched has very little to do with saving the kids but protecting the massive private prison contractors;
The largest private prison corporations, Core Civic and GEO Group, collectively manage over half of the private prison contracts in the United States with combined revenues of $3.5 billion as of 2015.
It is estimated that around 1 million people in this country are incarcerated for minor drug/non-violent offenses, and all that farting around with arresting pot heads is costing us;
The costs of this national obsession, in both money and time, are astonishing. Each year, enforcing laws on possession costs more than $3.6 billion, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Don’t be fooled by Noem’s message that she is trying to protect your children, this is about big money and big business. I have argued one of the main reasons employers are struggling right now to find workers is because many of these workers that are qualified can’t pass background checks due to felony drug convictions for minor possession.
I will say this, if Rec becomes legal in South Dakota (I give the Feds under 5 years to decriminalize it) I am not suggesting anyone who hasn’t tried it before to take up the hobby. Believe it or not, Mary Jane is popular because it works (gets you high) and has very few side effects. In other words, it is kind of harmless. But the major benefit from decriminalization, whether you use or not, is that it will save taxpayers a boat load of money, and the private prison contractors are not very happy about it (and neither are the lawyers).