A recent editorial in a local newspaper, "Marijuana growing cause for concern" concluded with, "There are no easy solutions." I say there is if we legalize it, control regulate it and tax it! Marijuana sells for from $1200.00 to $5400.00 per pound depending on the grade. Compare that to the cost of cotton which is less than $2.00 per pound!
Now you can clearly see why marijuana growers take their chances in losing a high percentage of their crops. Marijuana could be the greatest agricultural cash crop and new taxes of $1.4 billion by Sacramento estimates if the grower and the retailer is taxed. By legally growing marijuana here the quality could be controlled for purity unlike the junk smuggled across our border. Like any other crop grown in Mexico they can use any chemical they want to produce a faster crop but with health hazards not acquainted with locally grown.
It has been common practice for law enforcement to seize property when they make a drug bust. Since medical marijuana is legal the illegal marijuana could be seized and sold to the legitimate outlets and the money used to combat other crime. The Porterville Recorder reported in July that $1.67 billion had been seized which was more than the dairy industry in Tulare County alone. This could go a long way towards balancing the budgets of the state and local governments. This is just plain common sense but as I have said before, "common sense is uncommon when it comes to our government."
This is the 40th anniversary of the "war on drugs" and it is a losing situation. In 2009 we spent $51 billion or $169.00 for every man, woman and child in America. America has 5% of the world population and 25% of the incarcerated. Drug arrests have more than tripled in the last 25 years, totaling more than 1.66 million arrests in 2009. More than four out of five of these arrests were for mere possession, of drugs and forty-six percent of these arrests (760,000) were for marijuana possession alone.
Families are broken apart and individuals are given a prison record which makes it harder to get a job when they get out. The solution is to go on welfare and that is where the "War on Poverty" comes in, circa 1965, thanks to Lyndon B. Johnson which created another culture of dependency.
CNN reports that the full financial impact of legalization cannot be known, cannabis law enforcement in California is estimated to cost taxpayers anywhere between $200 million and $1.9 billion each year, whereas the State Board of Equalization has estimated that taxation could generate $1.4 billion a year in new tax revenue.
Our government has never seen a war or a tax they didn't like. This is an oxymoron by morons! They tax us into oblivion to support their wars and yet if they legalized marijuana and taxed it we would have a win-win situation by helping to balance the budget! We would also end the cartels war in Mexico that has reached 34,612 deaths just during Calderon's time in office. The fight over "drug turf" in our country cost us 5,874 deaths in 2009 alone
Now is the time to begin to end the "war" that will never end and has no positive results, in fact, has created even more terror. Legalize marijuana and create a win/win world for all of us.
