The Sweet Wars

It's amazing how much science and marketing energy goes into creating a substance that tastes like sugar with no calories. The Showdown at the Coffee Shop is now a Sergio Leone-quality stare down.

Stevia has long been popular as a sweetener in Japan and other countries, but for years the United States Food and Drug Administration has blocked it. In 1995, after pressure from the American Herbal Products Association, a trade group, the government allowed its sale as a dietary supplement, not something that could be used as an ingredient in food. But some large food and drink manufacturers, sensing an eager audience for a sugar substitute perceived as healthier than the rest, began investing in research and lobbying the government.

Never forget what is driving the American food industry. It's not health and it's not safety. They have little interest in long-term studies of how something like Splenda or stevia might impact health over the course of many years. No, it's more about customer loyalty to pink, blue, yellow, or now green packets (brilliant!) of formulated pseudo-sugar.

Because, really, simply eating less sugar is apparently not an option! When has the food industry or government encouraged you to eat LESS of anything? That's a preposterous notion! No, eat MORE fiber. MORE fruits and vegetables. Even "eat less red meat" gets translated into "choose meats low in saturated fats." Never will the industry or government suggest that we eat LESS. Again, because HEALTH is not the driver of these decisions...the bottom line is. Eating less would hurt the bottom line even if it might help our collective waistlines.

How Much Would Legalizing Pot Help Economy?

Not much. So says Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron in this NPR article.

Jeffrey Miron, a Harvard economist who has modeled and written on the economics of the marijuana market, figures state and federal taxes on cannabis sales add up to $6.7 billion annually.

And he calculates the savings from not having to enforce state and federal marijuana laws — in arrests, prosecution and incarceration — at $12.9 billion a year. Excluding additional expenses, such as the public health cost of marijuana, or the cost of administering the new law, Miron figures that legal pot creates almost a $20 billion bonus. Miron adds, however, that the people who thought the taxation of marijuana would create a windfall for government coffers will be disappointed.

"Compared to the size of most federal government agencies, compared to the tax revenue from things like alcohol and tobacco, and certainly compared to the size of deficits that we have, this is just not a major issue, it is not a panacea, it is not curing any of our significant ills," he says. "There may be good reasons to do it, but the budgetary part is not a crucial reason to do it."

NPR has been all over the marijuana question lately with commentators of all stripes as the "legalize it" crowd has gotten louder during the economic downturn. But, the argument for MJ as an economic panacea is not convincing.