Where there’s pot, there’s gold. So conclude more than 300 economists who say that the government — if it got out of the business of enforcing marijuana laws — could save a whopping $7.7 billion annually. Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron also figures there’s another $6 billion to be mined each year by taxing the drug at rates similar to booze and tobacco. The economists, who have signed a petition, don’t exactly go as far as Miron in suggesting pot be legalized but maintain that it’s high time, so to speak, for an “open and honest debate.”

http://now.msn.com/money/0417-billions-saved-by-legalizing-weed.aspx