It’s difficult to imagine that some intrepid legislator hasn’t already walked into Arnie “Pot is not a drug” Schwarzenegger’s office and said, “Governator, now is the time. Light it up. Inhale the new reality. Pot is, by a huge margin, the single largest cash crop in the state unless you count porn stars and celebrity rehab. It rakes in upwards of $14 billion a year — maybe a lot more than that — and that’s just from five clever hippies and a couple intrepid grandmas in Ukiah. Imagine what we could do if we went all-in.”
Are the discussions ongoing? Are they passing the bong of possibility around the state Senate chambers? You’re damn right they are. What’s holding them back? Probably the usual: the negative PR, looking “soft” on crime, encouraging permissiveness, pressure from prison lobbies, and so on. Don’t worry, Sacramento. Everyone’s already plenty drunk/high on prescription meds trying to alleviate fears of losing their job to care about that nonsense right now. Get to it.
Let’s phrase this grand scenario in another way: Why the hell not try it? What have we got to lose? What, we could go more broke? We could get more desperate and anxious? Fact is, economic nightmares need not breed only miserable stories of lost homes and lost jobs and shuttered businesses. They can also spawn creative solutions, innovative thinking, widespread munchies. Now is the time.
via Smoke This Recession / It’s simple: First we tax the booze. Then we legalize the pot. Done.
This is from the San Francisco Gate, so consider the source, but still, the discussion has begun on the legalization of marijuana for its obvious tax revenues and savings on enforcement. As we intrepid activists keep shooting down all the public’s fears of legal marijuana, through education on the science behind marijuana and through positive role modeling, people will find less compelling reasons to say “no” as their pocketbooks keep giving them more compelling reasons to say “yes”.
