Social And Economic Costs

Saw this item in a post by Boehlert at MMA:

•There are huge economic costs associated with gun violence. For example, firearm-related deaths and injuries resulted in medical and lost of productivity expenses of about $32 billion in the U.S., according to most recently available data.

This is roughly one-fifth the estimated costs of illegal drug use, though it's completely unclear how much of that is due to pot "crimes" (interesting how that's always conflated with other drugs, including alcohol, to obscure just what impact marijuana has).

On a related note, I enjoy this circular logic from the WH:

The Administration steadfastly opposes legalization of marijuana and other drugs because legalization would increase the availability and use of illicit drugs...

Um.  Okay.

ntodd