Calls for the legalization and decriminalization of marijuana grew louder this week, coming from a highly unlikely group: the police. In a 180-degree shift in position, South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agents, along with police chiefs and elected sheriffs from around the state announced their support for the legalization and taxation of marijuana.

“Weed is good.  Weed is right.  Weed works,” said Dorchester County Sheriff B.D. Squire, spokesman for the group. The change comes after calculating how much tax revenue could be produced by legalizing marijuana.

“There was a half-million dollar bust a couple weeks ago in Berkely County,” said state Agriculture Secretary Hugh Weathers, “if that pot was taxed at anything near the rate of tobacco… well that would be about $500 million straight into the state coffers. Can you imagine what kind of income we’d pull in if it was planted on proper farms and not just in little patches in the woods? We wouldn’t be having a ’stimulus’ debate because we wouldn’t need the money.”

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