So AG Holder has announced that the Federal Government will let individual states establish their own marijuana laws. Soon after, a state legislator introduces a bill to legalize marijuana in CA (which would legalize it more than it is currently legalized... currently anyone can buy weed with a doctor's note, and an entire cottage industry of pro-marijuana doctors has emerged. For a couple hundred bucks, they will write a note for just about anyone with any problem where the symptoms can be managed with weed... which is just about everything that causes stress, pain and sleeplessness.)
With the state budget in such terrible condition, the promise of massive tax revenue from legalized marijuana could be too hard to pass up. Marijuana is already the biggest cash crop in the state, but the state doesn't benefit from much of the tax revenue.
Aside from the tax benefits, I doubt there has ever been a time in this nation's history when marijuana has been more widely accepted by the general populace. The partial legalization the state has experimented with over the last few years has not resulted in doom.
Also, with all of the crazy stuff happening over the drug trade in Mexico, it wouldn't hurt to domesticate a bit of the drug trade. It is better that CA benefit from this nation's love of the ganja than violent drug cartels south of the border. It would be interesting to see what legalization would do to the illegal drug trade.
So the time is right for a bunch of reasons. Legalizing marijuana might be one of the new changes to American culture brought about, in large part, by these hard fiscal times. Want to know who will oppose it the most? Anyone who benefits from the prison industrial complex (the prison guard unions are going to go ballistic... f-them.)
With the state budget in such terrible condition, the promise of massive tax revenue from legalized marijuana could be too hard to pass up. Marijuana is already the biggest cash crop in the state, but the state doesn't benefit from much of the tax revenue.
Aside from the tax benefits, I doubt there has ever been a time in this nation's history when marijuana has been more widely accepted by the general populace. The partial legalization the state has experimented with over the last few years has not resulted in doom.
Also, with all of the crazy stuff happening over the drug trade in Mexico, it wouldn't hurt to domesticate a bit of the drug trade. It is better that CA benefit from this nation's love of the ganja than violent drug cartels south of the border. It would be interesting to see what legalization would do to the illegal drug trade.
So the time is right for a bunch of reasons. Legalizing marijuana might be one of the new changes to American culture brought about, in large part, by these hard fiscal times. Want to know who will oppose it the most? Anyone who benefits from the prison industrial complex (the prison guard unions are going to go ballistic... f-them.)
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