A San Francisco Assembly member thinks it's time to legalize marijuana, so the state can tax the bejabbers out of it, not to mention saving money by not imprisoning pot smokers. He'll get some support for the notion, but probably not enough to make it happen.
Tom Ammiano wants to bring the $14 billion a year marijuana harvest into the light -- the light of day, not a growing light -- to reduce crime while reaping a revenue bonanza. Columnist Dan Walters agrees. I sort of thought marijuana was already legal, or nearly so; it's so ubiquitous.
There are plenty of obstacles, of course, including opposition from the drug growers themselves. If pot were legal, it probably wouldn't be so lucrative. Law enforcement will oppose the idea, mostly, which leads to the interesting scenario of the good guys and the bad guys on the same side of the issue politically.
Maybe we should have another special election to settle the issue. We're getting good at that. Fire up the campaign, dude.
Great, just great! It bad enough that half of all Californians in a drug or alcohol haze are aiming their cars at me, now I have to worry about the other half of the populace that are pot-heads!
Legalization is long overdue. A report released in 2006 found that marijuana was the top cash crop in the United States, exceeding corn, soybean and hay. Using data from a 2005 State Department report on cannabis cultivation, the author estimated the nationwide value of the crop to be $35.8 billion.[1] That's slightly more money than the federal government spends fighting the drug war every year.[2] Marijuana prohibition has failed like alcohol prohibition failed 75 years ago. It costs too much money and doesn't deliver. It's wasteful spending at a time when Republicans in Congress are crying over the minutia in the stimulus bill. And let's not forget that the drug war is tearing Mexico apart as well, with more than 5,000 killings last year.[3]
[1] Marijuana is top U.S. cash crop, pro-legalization analysis says (2006)
[2] Marijuana Becomes Focus of Drug War (2005)
[3] Death toll in Mexico's drug war surges (2008)
Isn't that just the standard Liberal act though?? Instead of just simply controlling spending, they immediately look for more things to tax...and in this case, they try to legalize something in order to tax it. HAPLESS!!!
We've legalized gambling in order to alleviate guilt over the "Injuns" and parlayed that into tax money so why stop at "Weed"...Let's legalize prostitution at the same time and tax that too!What?Do drunks,gamblers,potheads,Indians and politicians have a moral issue with that?
I think that stuff smells awful, but if it would be lucrative tax revenue...why not. But what does it mean to "Bogart" something or someone? My daughter kept telling me about living in a paper bag...hahaha. But like Mark Twain's father, I too grew somehow smarter over the years.
"Dizzy"...To "Bogart" means to keep something for ones' own use and not to share with others in Users' slang.
Marijuana use leads to other harder drugs so no don't legalize it. People will just move on to a better faster high then what we legalize everything. I don't want to be out there when everyone is so stoned they cant see straight just because they can do it. Tax the legislators on their coffee and eveything that get. That ought to be a chink of change.
Jackie...Are you out there with all the drunks and feeling safe? The stoners are already out there mixed in with the legal/illegal prescription drug users. I think we would be better off legalizing its growth for personal use/possession...that might save us a ton of money and lives that the sale/possession of "Marijuana" costs us by being illegal.Forget about taxing it(insiders tell me the price will drop dramatically if legalized) unless it's mass produced and sold like the other legal drugs... but they won't get the $50/oz the wizard in Sacramento was talking about.
And some are just weirdos sans alcohol haze or being pot-heads. It's the holier than THOU, self-appointed judges of us sinners. But they are spreaders of the stimulus...they keep chiropractors busy.
Isabell,
Based on your most recent non sequitur, you must be bogarding someone's joint.
Paul J. O'Rourke Jr. Nothing non sequitor about it. Just go back to post 1 (T C Morgan) and my train of thought follows it. And I am done with the topic. Thank you!
Marijuana is already legal in California. I hate to break it to you, but it is already legal to cultivate and distribute marijuana in California. There are plenty of doctors out there who, for the correct fee, will give you the appropriate "recommendation" so that you can grow plants and "coop" ( ie: grow for someone else ). You can have up to a half pound in your possession. As someone elses "caretaker" ( ie: person who provides the "patient" their marijuana ) you can transport it for them and distribute it.
The sad truth is that the Compassionate Use of Marijuana initiative was so intentionally vaguely written that the system in place is broken. I clearly remember the advertisements talking about it providing relief for little old ladies dying of cancer. Literally, they showed sad black and white pictures of aged women in hospital beds. Instead it is by and large used to medicate 20 somethings with such problems as nausea, poor appetite, anxiety, ADD, and assorted aches and pains. Time to either admit the system is broken is make it illegal, or get rid of the masquerade and tax it. Whichever way each person believes, the current system is horrendously broken.
BTW to the comment of saving money on not jailing pot users; Use of marijuana is NOT a jailable offense. In fact, you currently face less penalty in California for possessing less than 1oz of marijuana than you do for speeding.
I googled my name and there was someone on this comment forum with my same name and I just think its funny that its about legalizing Marijuana. In part cause I my self would fall under the label "pot-head" and yes the system is flawed there isn't a really strict penalty anywhere besides Vegas. Fix it and leaglize? NO!! Never, then big brother would LOOSE millions in revenue because no one would buy it from them if they could grow it themselves. Then you say well stoners are lazy it would be easy to buy from the Gov't so they'll do it, remember that the slang term is WEED grows like one to may not be the best ever but would still get you high. As for people driving around so high they cant see straight.... I've smoked a lot of bud, for a long time and never has it made me not see straight, if you got some that does Isabell, I want some of that. On the subject of seeing crooked out of all the drugs there are to do, only one ever made me see crooked is Alcohal (sp)
Therefore i don't drink but maybe once every six months, to avoid driving drunk. Lemme ask you Isabell how many times have you climbed behind the wheel when you might be over the limit? An to bring this rant all to a close, I started smoking weed when i was 12 twice maybe three times a week then it went up to every day when i was about 14 and can honestly say never had the urge to try something BETTER or get HIGHER. Weed gets me high, its my release, like a construction worker drinking a six pack at three thirty. So do i think it will be legal in my life time? I'm 20 something so yeah ill see it once people realize that weed isn't a crazy killer drug or sick twisted chemicaly altered OxyContin ready to do chaos to your body like Meth or numb your judgement like booze but a plant found naturaly occuring all over the world and legal in MANY of those places.
"Try telling God that something He made is illegal" Bob Marley