California's drive to legalize Marijuana

"Yesssss......" we are one step closer to totally domination. America thinks that we Canadians just sit up here in our deep freeze, quietly watching hockey and drinking beer. Appearing serene and non-lethal, slowly our way of life is seeping into the American psyche.


First we crank them up with Tim's Horton's coffee, now we will mellow them out with legalized medicinal marijuana, and soon they will all be quietly "California Dreaming."


For years they have been pointing north and claiming that Canada was an example of what legalized pot produced. A whole country of laid back potheads, who produced bad movies and wouldn't support them when they invaded third world nations.


BUT...they have changed their tune now baby!! In the last week or two, proposals to legalize medical marijuana have advanced in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has taken a significant step further, saying on Tuesday that it's time to debate legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California.


They say desperate times call for desperate measures and they are definitely in desperate times. The biggest problem about the US economy is that they don’t make anything anymore. They closed the textile mills and now get their clothes from China, they get electronic goods from Japan, food from God knows where.


"I think it's time for debate," he said in response to a reporter's question. "I think all of those ideas of creating extra revenues -- I'm always for an open debate on it." "Right now, the state is in a budget fiasco that not going to go away soon... It's about time they look outside the box at ways of generating revenue."


America was sent into a depression 80 years ago after the US made alcohol illegal . During that time organized crime flourished while the economy suffered. America did not bounce out of that depression til after they made alcohol legal again in 1933.


If there is anything Americans know how to make, market and distribute, its marijuana. America has been marketing marijuana for years through music, movies, comedy and t-shirts. Illegal botanists have been making various high powered strands of marijuana while the US hasn’t had an agricultural innovation since the peanut.


But supporters of legalization may have been handed their most convincing argument yet: the bummer economy. Advocates argue that if state or local governments could collect a tax on even a fraction of pot sales, it would help rescue cash-strapped communities. Not surprisingly, the idea is getting traction in California, home to both the nation"s largest supply of domestically grown marijuana (worth a estimated $14 billion a year) and to the country"s biggest state budget deficit (more than $26 billion).


A recent California Field Poll showed that more than half the people in the state, where marijuana for medical use was approved more than a decade ago, would approve of decriminalizing pot. The state's faltering economy is one reason why. If legalized, marijuana could become California's No. 1 cash crop. It could bring in an estimated $1 billion a year in state taxes.


America has not had a cash crop in years. Sugar and the rum trade gave the Americas its first economic boom. Tobacco gave it its second. America has a long history of making money of drugs. People have reported that marijuana is the nation’s biggest cash crop, more than corn and soy combined. It is said that marijuana is responsible for $36 billion annually in the USA, none of which is taxed.


Today we are paying farmers not to grow crops. If farmers were allowed to grow marijuana, they would not need anymore subsidies and also be able to create badly needed jobs in the agricultural industries. If weed were legalized, farmers would also be able to grow hemp which can be used to make clothes, fuel food and many other things. It would be nice for America to have a product to export rather than importing everything, hemp could fill that role.


A lot of marijuana smoked in the states comes directly from Mexico or Canada. I hope this doesn't affect our sales!! So the sucking sound from the bong is actually American money and jobs going to Mexico and Canada.. Many agricultural, packaging and distribution jobs are all being outsourced to Mexico and Canada due to our strict marijuana laws.


Marijuana smokers are used to paying black market prices for weed. If marijuana was to be legally cultivated, it could be produced and distributed legally and cheaply. The government could then tax marijuana heavily as marijuana smokers are already used to paying marked up prices. If the USA were to legalize marijuana, many other countries would follow and America could begin importing and exporting marijuana all over the world.


Making marijuana illegal does not stop people who want to smoke it from purchasing it only makes it more of a hassle, wasting time and money on behalf of both the government and marijuana smokers.


George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin all grew hemp our last three presidents have smoked marijuana. One third of all Americans have smoked marijuana. Half of all 18 year old in America have smoked marijuana. Almost 1 million people are arrested for marijuana in a year 90% for simple possession. How many police man hours goes into arresting, incarcerating and processing these smokers?


Already many states have big problems with overcrowded prisons that they cannot afford to fund. Wouldn’t it be better to let out the marijuana smokers then the rapists, thieves and killers. Proponents of marijuana legalization have advanced plenty of arguments in support of their drug of choice - that marijuana is less dangerous than legal substances like cigarettes and alcohol; that pot has legitimate medical uses; that the money spent prosecuting marijuana offenses would be better used on more pressing public concerns. While 13 states permit the limited sale of marijuana for medical use, and polls show a steady increase in the number of Americans who favor legalization, federal law still bans the cultivation, sale, or possession of marijuana. In fact, the feds still classify marijuana as a Schedule I drug, one that has no "currently accepted medical use" in the United States.


Soon they will be giving up guns...too high to shoot straight.



Til later