Gibson writes: "If you're ready to stop being confused and end the senseless prohibition of marijuana, demand your state legislators introduce bills in the following session that do just that."
An elderly women smokes a joint at hemp fest. (photo: The Washington Post)
How Legal Marijuana Could Save $72 Billion Each Year
01 September 12
Reader Supported News | Perspective
f there was something readily available that had proven to successfully grow brain cells, kill cancer cells, treat glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, PTSD, insomnia, loss of appetite and other ailments, how infuriating would it be to know that both state and federal governments were spending in excess of $26 billion of our tax dollars every year arresting and incarcerating people for having, selling and using that substance? Could you imagine this guy going to jail for simply curing his thyroid cancer?
I still remember my 16-year-old cat dying when I was in high school, and crying after it happened. Losing a pet is traumatizing for any kid, especially little ones. I can only imagine the fear, terror, anger and hatred felt by three kids in St. Paul, Minnesota several weeks ago when drug task force agents raided their home in the middle of the night, shot their family dog, and made them sit handcuffed next to the bloody carcass at gunpoint for over an hour while officers ransacked their home. One child was kicked by a cop and searched while loaded guns were pointed at her. Another child was deprived of her diabetes medication and went into diabetic shock induced by low blood sugar levels. And the drug cops weren't even raiding the right home.
Retired California Superior Court Judge James P. Gray argued in 2009, during the state's debate over the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to regulate and taxed marijuana like alcohol, that the more than 30-year War on Drugs has failed miserably. Gray went on to state that the prohibition of marijuana has only led to the proliferation of even more potent marijuana, just as the days of alcohol prohibition motivated bootleggers to peddle stronger booze to turn a higher profit. The facts back up Judge Gray: Mexican drug cartels currently kidnapping, raping and murdering thousands every year would be crippled if marijuana, their biggest source of revenue, was made legal in the United States.
With taxed and regulated marijuana, federal and state governments would suddenly free up $26 billion spent annually on the failed drug war. And the additional tax revenue taken in, assuming the states regulate and tax the sale of marijuana, would mean an additional $46 billion in tax revenue every year. China spent $70 billion modernizing their high-speed rail system, which simultaneously created jobs, streamlined transportation, and will drastically improve the environment over the years. What if we invested $72 billion in American high-speed rail with that new revenue?
While state governments in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Connecticut, and yes, even Kentucky are waking up and realizing the benefits of both prescribing medical marijuana and regulating marijuana like alcohol, the federal government's chief drug enforcer, Michele Leonhart, is still blindly parroting vastly outdated talking points, even when confronted by members of Congress. And yes, this is the same federal government that has issued 300 pre-rolled joints every month since 1982 to stockbroker Irv Rosenfeld, who suffers from a condition that causes painful bone tumors. It's also the same federal government whose president said he would stop raiding medical marijuana farms and dispensaries in 2009. It's also the same federal government that continues to raid medical marijuana farms and dispensaries, like the ones at Oaksterdam University in 2012.
Confused yet? According to Kevin Drum of Mother Jones, the US government signed a treaty in 1961, with a host of other countries, that made marijuana a Schedule I drug, meaning it's flatly forbidden. Keep in mind, this was done not long after Harry J. Anslinger's lurid testimonies as US Commissioner of Narcotics, and racist fear-mongering by yellow journalists like William Randolph Hearst that insinuated that smoking marijuana would turn women into prostitutes.
But today, over half of Americans are ready to see marijuana legalized. And $3 million has already been raised to help the legalization efforts in Colorado, Oregon and Washington state. If you're ready to stop being confused and end the senseless prohibition of marijuana, demand your state legislators introduce bills in the following session that do just that. Demand members of Congress and presidential candidates to withdraw from the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. If they won't, elect legislators, congressmen and presidents who will.
Carl Gibson, 25, is co-founder of US Uncut, a nationwide creative direct-action movement that mobilized tens of thousands of activists against corporate tax avoidance and budget cuts in the months leading up to the Occupy Wall Street movement. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the documentary "We're Not Broke," which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. He currently lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. You can contact Carl at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and listen to his online radio talk show, Swag The Dog, at blogtalkradio.com/swag-the-dog.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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Marijuana grows brain cells??? Really???
If that's so, why was every pot head I ever met lethargic and unable to concentrate? Why did I have similar feelings when I experimented with it as a teen? This claim, even if scientifically provable, sounds absurd.
The other comments about tax revenue sound exaggerated also, and I agree that anything that can be home grown can avoid taxes. Of course, a Republican that smokes pot might argue that alcohol and tobacco can be produced at home also but, the consuming market for these commodities choose to buy the commercially produced versions of them instead.
That whole "brain cell" argument just escapes me though.
Carl; What have YOU been smoking?
2) For states with privatized or semi-privatized prison systems, immense amounts of money are being spent to incarcerate thousands of people convicted of cannabis-relate d crimes. These private prison corporations are also traditionally aligned with conservative politicians and causes;
3) Big Pharma and/or large breweries and distilleries;
4) Other than taxation (and perhaps the medical marijuana quasi-cartel), a profit would be difficult to wrest from cannabis if it was to be fully legalized.
As to your question about the benefits of cannabis consumption, I would point out to you that addiction and abuse can occur with a variety of substances, and the impairment of the stereotypical "pot-head" is no different than that of the beloved "town drunk." Both are the result of the INDIVIDUAL'S choice to over-consume.
One peer-reviewed study for supporting cannabinoids' role in neuronal growth is here:
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/25509
There are others, and the neuroscience community is generally accepting of this research.
Unable or unwilling?
I always found it much easier to focus after a couple of hits. As a teenager, I took a series of psychological tests over a couple of days and scored a higher IQ (whatever that is,) on the day when I smoked a joint before the test session.
However, I'm with you; skeptical about "growing" brain cells.
At the moment, numerous hemp products are quite legally offered for sale throughout the United States. Yet the makers of these products must turn to other countries for their raw material, as it cannot be grown here. It's time for that to change.
Hemp is a renewable crop that can produce biomass, fibers for rope, textiles, and papers. Hemp oil has a variety of uses, some of them medicinal. It will grow in all 50 states (indeed, already does), can tolerate almost any soil, requires little or no fertilizer, more or less weeds itself, and not especially prone to insect predation, so...no need for insecticides either.
Cannabis varieties have an increasing number of demonstrated medicinal properties, with few or no documented health hazard. There is not one case of marijuana overdose on record. Shouldn't people have access to this useful medicine?
Yes, some people will smoke or otherwise ingest the stuff and listen to The White Album through headphones all day long. It's their choice. Is that not better for this country than having a de facto war fought by organized crime at our southern border?
But that brings up a another point. Who is our government working for -- citizens or corporations -- and I don't care what the Supreme Court says, they are not the same. Unfortunately, however, it's much like Clint Eastwood said at the Republican Convention the other night "We own this country!" -- and he wasn't talking about you and me.
Facts:
1. Directly & indirectly, we lose at least $150 BILLION per year fighting a losing War on Drugs.
2. The net revenue (insofar as anyone can tell) in the illicit drug trade is $500 BILLION.
3. Mankind has had a love affair with mind altering drugs for 10,000 years that we know for sure.
4. With numbers and a history like this our candy-assed, racist and puritanical attempts to suppress ANY naturally occuring driug (
4. With numbers and a history like this, any attempt to wipe out ANY naturally occurring drugs (MJ, cocaine, opium & its derivatives, etc) with our puritanical, racist drug laws is pre-ordained to FAIL!
Standing four-square AGAINST drug law revision are:
1. The illicit drug dealers.
2. Our own Drug Warriors whose mantra is "It may be shit to you, but it's my bread & butter!"
3. Our legislators, much of whose "power" is derived from throwing money at LOCAL, ineffective-but -feel-good anti drug projects like DARE, LEAA and SWAT teams in every American Podunk and crossroad.
4. Uncounted ignorant demagogues and fear-mongering preachers who can't tell their anus from a bullet wound.
5. So called "ethical drug manufacturers" whose cash cow pain-killers pale beside UN-PATENTABLE (unprofitable) "natural" marijuana, heroin, cocaine, etc.
6. The burgeoning prison industry.
Conclusion: Through our asinine anti-drug policies, we have created an artificial economy in which ordinarily dirt-cheap pain meds bring in outrageous revenues . . . which in turn finance other crime and wars upon our own nation.
2. The amount of money involved is so great that corruption in our government & police force is rampant. For decades, J Edgar Hoover forbid his "untouchables" from drug cases for just this reason!
DECRIMINALIZE!
CONTROL!
TAX!
Q. The two mind-altering drugs MOST difficult for a fourteen-year-o ld to buy are WHAT?
A. A six-pack of beer followed closely by tobacco products.
Why? The clerk at the 7-11 loses her job &n goes to jail if he/she does NOT check ID to ensure age requirements are met in both alcohol & tobacco sales. . Street dealers of illegal drugs is not so encumbered.
That being said, I live in Kentucky and I can tell you that Perry Clark is going to have an extremely tough road to hoe as far as getting this bill through the legislature. He may even lose his Senate seat because of it - that's how strong the opposition is. I mean, you're talking about a state where it's legal to carry a gun into the Capitol Bldg in Frankfurt, as long as it's not concealed. Legislators ARE allowed to carry concealed weapons. Does that tell you the mindset? I might further add that the Commonwealth of Kentucky has roughly a 47% illiteracy rate - which is why Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul get elected. Dumb-d-dumb-dum b-dumb. Dumb butt ignorant are most of the uneducated population down here.
Even though Kentucky, arguably one of the poorest states in the country, could become one of the WEALTHIEST if marijuana was once again legal, I won't hold my breath....becau se the average Kentuckian, including those in the state legislature, are just butt dumb ignorant.
I mean, we're the only state to have a "Creation Museum". Sigh.
But hey, we can always HOPE. Speaking of which, where is all that HOPE and CHANGE Pres. Obama promised us? He's the lesser evil and so I will vote for him, but I think we should put more pressure on him to legalize marijuana.
You get my drift? There is a whole army of us in America who depend on the drug trade and the profits it generates to keep us in the chips,.... and to keep you from yourselves. Legalize it,.. and by God we'll have a country of 'Willy Nelsons' on our hand,... for crying out loud!
If I were a conservative I'd say, "Here! Smoke this and shut the hell up!"
The affects of using pot are not any more harmful to society than using alcohol or cigarettes. If it's limited to use in one's own home, not even legalized to the degree of public consumption, then I see no risk to the public and a much greater potential "up" side.
This is a win-win for conservatives and a lose-lose for liberals. Not legalizing it makes us focus our attention on it rather than other things, and legalizing it would help get them to the polls in even greater numbers.
I don't have a personal problem with the legalization of the drug. I have a huge strategic problem with making that too much of our focus. If you honestly think we could realistically pull off legalizing it within the next 50 years, great. Otherwise, I see it as, at best, a back buner issue, and at worst, a huge distraction.
Another industry that would be hit very hard is the DEA. Thousands of agents would have nothing to do. Then what about judges, prosecutors, and prisons? They would have to focus on real criminals, much harder targets. Pot convictions are and and can improve the won/lost record of the prosecutors and help judges look "tough on crime."
The entire "war on some drugs" is another example of the hypocrisy and dishonesty of the American "justice" system.
FACT: Many drug dealers in Miami & elsewhere are shifting from dealing drugs to scamming Medicare because it's safer, the penalties are very light and the profits are comparable.
Go figure.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19372456
OK, legalize, but then come up with an idea for a propaganda campaign that will make kids think it is uncool to smoke it.
So get your buddies out there VOTING.
So, OF COURSE repugs smoke pot.
Makes perfect sense to me.
Legalization of Marijuana would end nearly All drug cartels almost overnight. Why?
The supply would flourish (I mean FLOURISH) dropping the price tremendously,we ll below any 'real' profitability. No profits? NO traffic !
Also, users of other dangerous, far more expensive substances would then change, almost immediately, to That ... which was available, cheap, and legal. (those that could, would). And the Demand for these other substances would drop, as well. No Money in it? Traffic automatically diminishes...su bstantially.
What election last year? Granted you read the Ukiah Daily Urinal. As to profits, well folks could brew their own booze and grow their own tobacco but do they do it? Most folks do not have the time, desire or space. Cops, courts, correctional personnel and cartels are the big winners here if we keep the status quo.
Actually, if people want to smoke pot, it should be free, meaning no cost. Same for alcohol and other predator economies. The idea of others profiting from people becoming addicted to a drug is quite offensive to human dignity. Let alone that the state gets a cut from every alcoholic's purchase.
somehow i think an economy that includes a military budget that is almost as much as the entire rest of the world combined as well as one in which we (the US) are by far the largest seller of weapons in the world is far more "immoral" than millions of folks smoking pot. And, just as with alcohol, most pot smokers are "recreational users" just as most that drink alcohol are "social drinkers"...nei ther are "addicts"
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