Marijuana Legalization: Politicians (Including Obama) Are Nothing But Dopes May 24, 2012
Posted by Benjamin Wendell in drug policy, Politics.Tags: dispensaries, justice department, legalization, marijuana, Obma, police, poll, revenue, taxes
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Poll: 56% Of Americans Favor Marijuana Legalization
Let me summarize:
1- Marijuana is way less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, both of which are legal, regulated, and taxed.
2- Marijuana is demonstrably beneficial in a number of medical conditions, which is why many states have legalized it’s use as a prescription drug.
3- Mariujana is a weed, no more difficult to cultivate than dandelions. It’s already grown cheaply and sold expensively, resulting in billions of dollars of profit, but not a penny in taxes. Last time I checked, the US could really use a bit more tax revenue. (And no worries, Tea Party Republicans: These taxes would disproportionately burden lower and middle class Americans. The Koch brothers would be on the production side.)
4- Marijuana legalization would result in decreased public safety expenditures. Police could spend their limited budgets pursuing violent criminals. Prisons would have more space for murderers, rapists, and purveyors of Ponzi schemes.
Yet the president is sending federal marshalls into medical marijuana dispensaries and not a single politician on either side of the aisle has the courage to stand up and say it’s just plain wrong. In Washington there’s a glut of bullshit and a paucity of courage. And common sense? That’s about as rare in DC as an unemployed escort.
BW
Washington is filled with lobbyists for pharmaceutical companies…dead set against marijuana becoming legal. Cigarettes and alcohol (drugs that kill people) being legal says it all.