Rick Raw: Legal Marijuana? No Brainer for Cash Strapped States–Smoke It, Tax It

By Rick Grant Commentary rickgrant01@comcast.net

Excuse me while I get my old bong out of storage. Yes, cash strapped California has a legalize marijuana initiative before the voters. With a $20 billion budget shortfall, it’s a pregnant idea to turn that red ink into a smoking green surplus, dripping with high grade THC buds. Smoke it and tax the living daylights out of it.

Pot is already listed as California’s biggest cash crop. So, why not just legalize it and reap the tax dollars from an expanding industry. Legalization will also save hundreds of millions of dollars in law enforcement costs to stage paramilitary marijuana eradication campaigns.

The truth is: The war on drugs was lost years ago. Legalization of all drugs takes them out of the hands of organized crime syndicates and cartels. America is the drug demand capital of the world. Here in the U.S., there are over 30 million pot smokers. That’s a bodacious tax generating market.

More significantly, the expensive crack downs on smuggling drugs into the United States form Mexico and other countries has been a pathetic failure. At best, the Border Patrol has only seized less than five percent of the total tonnage of Marijuana and other drugs pouring into the country to satisfy the demand.

The phony preachers and bible belt religious groups can organize "Just Say No to Drugs’ rallies all they want, but drug users are not listening, especially marijuana smokers. This laid-back group correctly believe that pot is a benign drug that has medicinal benefits and a euphoric high.

Years ago, a controlled scientific study was conducted of regular marijuana smokers in Jamaica over many years of their life. It concluded that they suffered no adverse affects, except feeling more joy and appetite than non-users. For cancer patients on chemotherapy, pot smoking alleviates their pain and improves their appetite.

There are innumerable medical marijuana shops which have sprung up around the California. Granted, in California, it’s easy to get a prescription to buy medical pot for just about any malady–real or imagined. It’s time to face facts and not pretend that marijuana isn’t a widely used drug and in high demand countrywide.

The pertinent question is: If California’s voters approves the initiative for legal pot, will it set a precedent for other states to test the voters’ will to legalize it? Perhaps some states will go legal pot green, like Colorado and New Mexico.

Ah yes, not here in uptight Florida, which is a rabidly conservative state that is an extension of the bible belt ballyhoo. I’m like a whore at a nun’s picnic living in this awful state. Still, I get perverse delight skewering the conservative movement here in the state with sunshine coming out of the holes in people’s brains.

The California bill imitates the same restrictions as the alcohol laws. People would have to be 21 years old or older to possess, cultivate, or transport marijuana for personal use. Californians would not be permitted to use the drug in public or within the presence of minors, and would not be allowed to possess pot on school grounds. No more smoking in the boy’s room! And, no more getting the goldfish high.

A whopping $50 tax would be imposed on every ounce that’s sold. Well, that’s okay, every inhalation from the bong will be helping bail out the state. Hey, it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. Yet, I don’t smoke pot anymore. Old age is making me stupid enough. I don’t need any help.

Still, if marijuana was legal in Florida, I might indulge to help the state get out of its billion dollar debt, which was caused by dumbass Governor Crist’s tax cuts. Hell, it would be my civic duty. Now where did I store my Cheech and Chong movies.