The Money Spent Fighting the Dreaded Scurge of Marijuana

[Dillinger]

The Money Spent Fighting the Dreaded Scourge of Marijuana

This has been a personal rant of mine for decades - the amount of time and money wasted by our government - using OUR money - to harass and prosecute and criminalize something that should be a personal choice matter.

Maxim just came out with the following editorial that puts things in a current perspective that I really like:

... Show of hands: Who thinks that the billions upon billions of your tax dollars the government is spending each year fighting the dreaded scourge of marijuana would be better spent fighting al Queda? If you agree, call your chickenshit congressman...

I don't know about you, but I find it profoundly disturbing that in a nominally free country this can't even come up for debate. If we taxed the estimated $32 billion crop (America's largest) instead of fruitlessly trying to eradicate it, we'd instantly raise billions for the war effort... and instantly free up thousands of well-trained cops and federal agents to help avert the next deadly attack. If another mad bomber slips through the net because the extra manpower we need is off busting some dude for smoking a joint after work, isn't that beyond obscene?

I fully agree - it would be beyond obscene.

 

[sunstruck]

Couldn't agree more. Ain't gonna happen. But I couldn't agree more.

 

[SlipperyKitten]

Totally agree. They are wasting all this money but it isn't doing shit

 

[sufisaint]

The big problem is that its a damn weed...you can grow it in your back yard by chucking a few seeds out ...i believe in choice but the government realizes they cannot tax it...lets take the money and buy solar panels...than the hell with the middle east...oh yeah ...you cannot tax the sun either like you can a barrel of oil..than a gallon of gas...

 

[Bob_Bytchin]

I agree completely. Wasted resources, wasted money, and wasted time, just to try and solve a problem that will never be solved.

** It's also amazing, that the FBI can track down people involved in the illicit trade of *ghasp* MP3 trading, yet they couldn't fit the pieces of the pre-9/11 together to prevent what happened.

 

[Velius]

I agree completely. This little war of theirs is moronic. They should be supplying people with the jobs that the hemp industry and the cannibis industry would create, not denying them in the worst possible way. It's insane how valuable a crop hemp is, it's hard to even comtemplate. I am sure the Armed Forces could use some of the money and I am doubly sure that the nation could use the economic boost.


Go Army, BTW. I enlisted last month. Yay me.

 

[WaxNWane]

It's scOurge, you stoner.

 

[Velius]

Oh and no doubt about that last Bob_Bytchin, it makes you feel really good about the people that are running the country eh?

 

[sunstruck]

The big problem is that its a damn weed...you can grow it in your back yard by chucking a few seeds out ...i believe in choice but the government realizes they cannot tax it...lets take the money and buy solar panels...than the hell with the middle east...oh yeah ...you cannot tax the sun either like you can a barrel of oil..than a gallon of gas...

Oh they could tax it. You'd be surpized. I can grow tobacco in my backyard, but I don't. I (when I smoked) went to the store and bought a pack of American Spirits. Growing marajuana in your home is time consuming and complicated. You need fans and grow lights and...umm...not that I've ever done it.

Anyway, you could easily sell and tax marajuana cigarettes and it would be highly profitable. People buy it now. Your connection just changes from your burnt out high school buddy, to your local Quickie Mart.

 

[Velius]

Yes it would be incredibly easy to tax. And the cannibis industry alone would raise a TON of money, and then you have hemp crops piled on top of it. I mean, you can make practically anything out of hemp.

 

[Dillinger]

It's scOurge, you stoner.

You're right, I hate when I do that - and I'm not even high.

 

[Laurel]

Here's what I don't get: Republicans are traditionally in favor or states rights over Federal rights, yet Ashcroft's Justice Dept. is prosecuting people who grow medical marijuana, despite the fact that Californians votes to LEGALIZE that practice.

And despite the fact that Oregonians have TWICE voted for right to die initiatives, Ashcroft is trying to overturn their will.

Can a Republican please come forward and explain the rational behind an administration that claimed pre-election to be pro-states rights is now trampling all over them?

 

[Uber Sparky]

Since when do any politicians.....

need some sort of logical - rationale?

 

[Texan]

just a couple of additional thoughts.

I see one of the problems as being ignorance. Remember, less than 30% of the CURRENT U.S. population has ever smoked marajuana. Over the next 20 years, that percentage will change dramatically as the older (over 60) generation dies. People who have never "experienced" pot will naturally think of it as an evil drug. (After all, if it weren't a drug, why would people risk breaking the law to smoke it?)

We have a representative government. Our marajuana laws are based upon what the "majority" of our population believes. Since there is no way to get the "older" part of our population to experience marajuana to understand that it is basically harmless, we will just have to sit back and wait until our representative government is representing a population that is less ignorant about marajuana.

(Note: while I feel marajuana should be legalized, I DO NOT feel the same about other narcotics. People who advocate legalization of marajuana should be sure they are advocating the legalization of ONLY marajuana. Any other position regarding other drugs will be counterproductive regarding marajuana legalization.)

 

[Velius]

No doubt Laurel. I hate politicians. Hehe how do you manage to always have such cute kitty pictures?

 

[Uber Sparky]

Hey Texan?

What's yer relative take on alcohol?

 

[riff]

I wish I had some.

 

[Texan]

Here's what I don't get: Republicans are traditionally in favor or states rights over Federal rights, yet Ashcroft's Justice Dept. is prosecuting people who grow medical marijuana, despite the fact that Californians votes to LEGALIZE that practice.

And despite the fact that Oregonians have TWICE voted for right to die initiatives, Ashcroft is trying to overturn their will.

Can a Republican please come forward and explain the rational behind an administration that claimed pre-election to be pro-states rights is now trampling all over them?

Laurel, the laws that are being prosecuted by the Federal Department of Justice are Federal Laws. If that's the case, it doesn't matter who's running the Dept of Justice, they are required to enforce Federal Law.

State laws that establish misdemeanor offenses for certain drug related offenses, CAN be changed by state legislatures or voter referendums. Federal laws that establish felony offenses can't be changed by at the state level. The state referendums concerning marajuana cultivation and possession of quantities over the limits established by Federal law, are not valid. The same applies to, so called, "right to die" referendums.

 

[Velius]

IMO all drugs should be decriminalized, and addicts should be given treatment. Sticking people in prison isn't the way to help them. I don't advocate pretty much anything besides cannibis, quite the opposite in fact. The current system is so flawed as to be unusable.

 

[Texan]

Re: Hey Texan?

What's yer relative take on alcohol?

sparks..... I think of alcohol about the same way I think of marajuana. It is something that should (and is) legal, but the activities of people under its influence should be regulated.

 

[sunstruck]

Damn it Texan you haven't said anything that pissed me off or even ruffled my feathers in weeks!

I agree that it's simply going to have to be a matter of waiting for the Refer Madness generation to die off. Senior Citizens vote in the largest numbers. But it'll happen sooner than you think. Think about it, the flower children and hippies of the 60's (ie, my parents) are already in their 50's and 60's.

I say give it 10 years.

 

[miles]

Here's what I don't get: Republicans are traditionally in favor or states rights over Federal rights, yet Ashcroft's Justice Dept. is prosecuting people who grow medical marijuana, despite the fact that Californians votes to LEGALIZE that practice.

And despite the fact that Oregonians have TWICE voted for right to die initiatives, Ashcroft is trying to overturn their will.

Can a Republican please come forward and explain the rational behind an administration that claimed pre-election to be pro-states rights is now trampling all over them?

This is not a Republican/Democrat issue. It's a stupidity/bureacracy issue.

Someone find out how much money the feds spent in the "Drug War" (shyeah, right) in 2001.

If they decrim marijuana, what do you think the feds will do with all the money they save? Give it back to the taxpayers? What will happen to all the narcs?

And why is everyone so excited about taxing it? Just what we need. More taxes.

 

[Velius]

There is an estimate for the "Drug War" somewhere on the web. It goes up by the second though so it's hard to pinpoint it.

 

[sunstruck]

I wasn't excited about taxing it. But I do prefer the idea of making money on it to spending money on it. The money wouldn't go back to the people directly, but it could go to free clinics, drug education etc. It could go to help.

Yes there's a problem with being to wide eyed and trusting Miles, but there are equal probelms with being too jaded.

 

[Spinaroonie]

Yeah, we spend money on prosecuting, however, it employs thousands of Americans, from the border patrol to the dorky kid on the box of the home drug test kits. We make money on prisoners, having them construct and build things.