The Sac Bee gives us the heads-up: Enough signatures have now been gathered to qualify the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010” to be on November’s ballot! (Not to be confused with the June ballot, which will include the vitally important Fair Elections Act.)
The libertarian in me loves this, and doesn’t get much disagreement from the rest of me. This can only help ameliorate two of California’s most pressing problems: our ballooning budget deficit, and our bloated prison population.
And while I don’t enjoy or indulge in the drug myself, still, as I look around this wicked world, I’d say there would be a lot less war, crime and misery if some of these bastards would just get stoned and chill.
And it’s outrageously unfair that while the much-more harmful drug alcohol is legal and practically encouraged in many situations, this one’s demonized. We all know that the main funders of anti-pot propaganda (who no doubt will be filling the airwaves with ads opposing this measure) are the alcohol and tobacco industries, always working safely behind sleazy astroturf front groups like the execrable “Partnership for a Drug-Free America,” which focuses all its effort attacking pot, ignoring really harmful drugs and squandering any credibility they might have.
Three things this blogger has long, long, failed to notice:
- People driving too fast and recklessly, crashing their cars and killing each other, because they were stoned on pot.
- Guys getting in fights for no compelling reason and beating the hell out of each other, because they were stoned on pot.
- People beating and verbally abusing their mates and children because they were stoned on pot.
Of course that’s all just my observations; what say Juice readers?
[poll id=”264″]
People driving too fast and recklessly, crashing their cars and killing each other, because they were stoned on pot.
Guys getting in fights for no compelling reason and beating the hell out of each other, because they were stoned on pot.
People beating and verbally abusing their mates and children because they were stoned on pot.
Vern you did not miss anything, that happens with other drugs and drinking, most pot smokers just mellow out, eat more or go to sleep. All extremely dangerious behaviors of course.
The only money is going to be in selling the plants – probably sales tax exempt as an agricultural product.
that America’s first marijuana law was enacted at Jamestown Colony, Virginia in 1619. It was a law “ordering” all farmers to grow Indian hempseed. There were several other “must grow” laws over the next 200 years (you could be jailed for not growing hemp during times of shortage in Virginia between 1763 and 1767), and during most of that time, hemp was legal tender (you could even pay your taxes with hemp — try that today!) Hemp was such a critical crop for a number of purposes (including essential war requirements – rope, etc.) that the government went out of its way to encourage growth. http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/
The real crime is spending $47,000 a year for each inmate behind bars for pot related crimes. This is just like alcohol prohibition and how it created violence, corrupted officials, and empowered organized crime. Let’s educate people about it, legalize it, tax it, and let people grow a reasonable amount of plants in their own backyard. The founding fathers of our country would have been appalled about the thought of a government protecting people from themselves.