Bootleggers and Baptists are the classic example of an unholy alliance formed in support of government regulation.
In the famous article titled “Bootleggers and Baptists regulatory economist Bruce Yandle explains why these morally opposed parties historically worked together to pass Sunday closing laws for local bars and liquor stores. Bootleggers, who illegally supplied alcohol, sought a day without competition from legal establishments. Baptists provided rhetorical cover for the bootleggers by arguing that the Lord’s Day should be free from drinking and debauchery.
The Bootleggers and Baptists” problem recurs in democratic politics. This fall Californians will vote on Proposition 19 an initiative that would legalize tax and regulate cannabis. Many groups decry marijuana legalization based on the health safety or moral implications of using marijuana. However the public-spirited opposition to Proposition 19 is largely financed by law enforcement and alcohol industry groups who profit handily from drug prohibition.
Law enforcement officials use marijuana prohibition as a means of “Policing for Profit according to an article published in the University of Chicago Law Review. Law enforcement agencies’ budgets are supplemented by $48 billion per year in combined federal, state and local funding for the War on Drugs.
Additionally, law enforcement agencies are often able to pocket valuable assets taken in drug raids. In one example from May of 1988, the Coast Guard seized a yacht valued at $2.5 million because it contained one-tenth of an ounce of marijuana.
To protect their cash pot, law enforcement groups have spent a small fortune fighting Proposition 19. The California Narcotics Officers’ Association contributed $20,500, whereas the California Police Chiefs Association gave $30,000. The Placer County Deputy Sheriff’s Association, the California Peace Officers Association, the California District Attorney Association and the Peace Officers Association of Los Angeles County have also made significant donations.
In addition to law enforcement groups, the beer lobby has been a staunch opponent of Proposition 19. The California Beer and Beverage Distributors (CBBD) contributed $10,000 to Public Safety First, making the beer industry the second largest donor to the largest group opposing Proposition 19.
By putting money where its mouth could never be, the CBBD is essentially admitting that the beer industry is terrified of competing with legalized marijuana. Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project quipped that, [u]nless the beer distributors in California have suddenly developed a philosophical opposition to the use of intoxicating substances the motivation behind this contribution is clear. Plain and simple the alcohol industry is trying to kill the competition.”
Today “Baptists” oppose Proposition 19 as a well-meaning attempt to protect society from the evils of marijuana usage. Unfortunately marijuana prohibition merely supports the alcohol industry and thus perpetuates even graver dangers to society.
In 1998 the National Institute for Health estimated that alcohol abuse cost U.S. society some $148 billion per year— a sum roughly 50 percent higher than the estimated costs of all drug usage ($98 billion).
According to the same study the majority of the costs of drug usage resulted from drug-related crime or in other words from the very policy of drug prohibition. The roughly 40 percent of remaining drug-related expenses such as productivity losses and health care expenditures can most likely be attributed to hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. Marijuana is largely harmless. Dr. Leslie Iversen professor of pharmacology at Oxford University maintains that marijuana has no long-term health effects— and is safer to use than aspirin.
The War on Weed is nonsensical but continues because self-interested groups have exploited the rhetoric of “the public good” to promote their own private benefit. Marijuana usage in itself is no great evil. However marijuana prohibition has many grave dangers including black market-related crime incentives for alcohol abuse and the corruption of law enforcement agencies.
Hopefully California voters will disregard the “Bootleggers and Baptists” of marijuana policy and pass Proposition 19 in November. Today we take for granted the freedom to buy a beer on Sundays. Similarly Californians will eventually embrace a sensible drug policy that downsizes the power of government expands the legal marketplace and allows individuals the right to insert relatively harmless substances into their bodies.