Barry sez "Puff, puff pass!"
Today I see this news story in the SF Chronicle:
The state legislative counsel on Wednesday concluded that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger exceeded his authority when he cut hundreds of millions of dollars from state health and welfare programs before signing a package of bills to solve the state’s huge deficit.
and it reminds me of this one from the Merced Sunstroke:
Authorities discovered and destroyed more than $50 million worth of marijuana during a weekend sweep in western Merced County.
Holy Smoke!
and then it hit me :
What if the State of California took the weed and sold it? Not just the batch found over on the other side of Merced County, but all the illegal pot/ganja/herb/maryjane/sinse/skunk/hydro/pakalolo/wacky tobbacky/homegrown/wildwood flowers that are found growing around the state each year?
Medicinal marijuana is legal here, so why not turn a profit? It would help our budget crisis and some sick people too. Even better, legalize it completely and tax it.
Quit protecting people from the dangers of drugs by introducing them to the dangers of prison. Quit spending millions of dollars to investigate, arrest, prosecute and incarcerate people who aren’t hurting anyone except maybe themselves.
And quit wasting all that gift from nature.
BTW: You can order your copy of that “Yes We Cannabis” poster from NORML here
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Filed under: General, Law Enforcement, Marijuana legalization | Tagged: Marijuana legalization |
The Confluence 
Remember – A friend with weed is a friend indeed!
~~Quit protecting people from the dangers of drugs by introducing them to the dangers of prison. ~~
I read this sentence and I thought, WOW!
That is a damned good point.
“Weed will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no weed.”
Heh.
We could do great things for the economy by legalizing and taxing the hell out of weed. Seriously.
If it were legal marijuana would be incredibly cheap to produce – even with a hefty tax it would still be cheaper than it is now.
(So I hear anyway)
Pot will grow almost anywhere. It’s… well….a WEED! I have had “spontaneous” crops before. In the distant past.
Did you know little Ole ladies use Medicinal marijuana to treat their arthritis, by mixing it and then rubbing it on the joints (real ones…) and it relieves their pain and inflammation.
They should really consider this, for those with legitimate use of the medicinal properties of marijuana.
The only problem I can see with the state making pot legal and selling it, (if I understand what they’re saying) would then make it illegal for patients to grow their own, which under the current California law they are allowed to do. The people on limited incomes that can’t afford what clubs and such are selling it for now which is already very high, (street value and supposedly this is to keep people from selling it and making a profit), so then those people that already can’t afford it and are forced to try and grow their own then have no access to it.
People can grow their own fruits and veggies, and make beer and wine too.
But most people don’t bother and just buy them at the store.
Yes that’s true, all I’m saying is they should have that same choice.
Guess I should add, I’m all for taxing it, but it shouldn’t be the state or feds selling it, and people should retain the right to grow it themselves.
It should be legal like tobacco. If someone wants to grow it commercially to sell, fine – tax and regulate that. If someone wants to grow for their own personal use at home, fine, and free.
Yep, that’s just how I see it too.
legal hemp (the non-smokeable type of weed) is a very useful product that could not only reduce deforestation but could also be used to fight global warming.
It grows fast and turns CO2 into oxygen
You know,our forefathers had to grow hemp.
I hear hemp is good for clothing too.
I believe the Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. Jefferson and Washington both grew it. If it’s good enough for the Fouders, it should be good enough for the rest of us.
BTW myiq, do you know if Ammiano’s bill is going to get a hearing anytime soon?
Now to the NORML site to pick up a copy of that AWESOME poster!
The US learned during the depression that prohibition DOES NOT WORK.
How much money is being spent “controlling” a weed?
Other counties have looked at the facts and the real science and have decided to use pot for the good of the country. No more money going to “enforcement”. No more money putting sick people in jail because they need pot for medical conditions.
I don’t smoke — I’m seemingly allergic to damned near everything. So I’m not arguing for myself — I’m arguing practical dollars here.
We as a nation just do NOT have the money for the moral outrage to control and punish people who are using recreational drugs.
Can we please have some common sense on this subject and let the states MAKE MONEY from “sin”!
How many people are still in jail because of pot crimes? Getting those people OUT of jail and working and paying taxes again would be a plus.
YEA! My comments are posting.
Seems like “someone” had a talk with Spammy.
Thank you!
~The US learned during the depression that prohibition DOES NOT WORK. ~
You really said it all right there. That is reason enough to stop throwing good money after bad. But, political insanity, in other words political dogma and demagoguery guanrantee that no politician will ever tell the trith about weed.
Senate confirms Sotomayer for Supreme Court
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/06/sonia.sotomayor/index.html
I think weed should be sold every where, and taxed. It’s ridiculous. We are such buffoons in this country. Economic crisis meet solution. And, you know, pot has medicinal value beyond helping with queasiness. There was a recent studies that said smoking mj helped protect the lungs of smokers from cancer. Since smoking weed is decriminalized in my state, I don’t know why we haven’t done that. We’re like the bluest state in the union. We’re practically France. Well, then, I don’t know why we don’t have single payer here either.
The things you all say are true.
I had to quit, weed personally. Worst breakup of my life. It wasn’t the “reefer madness” I couldn’t handle, it was the “reefer happiness” My life was falling apart all around me and I was happy as a clam. 🙂
I do advocate for legalization though. Two words, Vodka and Xanax. When they can prove to me that weed is worse on any level we can talk about “dangerous drugs…ooh!”
but until then, it’s irrational crap. Anyone who want to smoke…WHATEVER! That’s them. I have no beef. or evn if I do have concerns, it’s not my business to run the lives of others.
Ron, hubby is a doc, and is well aware that pot is not totally without its lung consequences.
HOWEVER, he adamantly believes that it likely has a better safety profile than 2/3 of the drugs he regularly prescribes for anxiety. He’d much rather tell a patient with mild anxiety to take a few tokes than pop an Ativan, if he could.
See? But is cuts into the profits of Seagrams and GlaxoSmithKline.
Nothing is without consequences, nothing. Cigarettes and right wing talk radio are legal!
Cigarettes and right wing talk radio are legal!
Says it all.
🙂
I have been told that pot brownies would solve that problem.
he would prescribe something that causes anxiety attacks and paranoia to some one with a problem with anxiety?
Pot may dull your brain, but it speeds up your heart and metabolism. I quite when I was14 because I figured I could have an anxiety attack all on my own and all the older people around me who were stoned regularly seemed to be getting dumber and lazier by the day.
There are actually studies to support it – one here done at the U of Michigan and reported in several Neuroscience journals.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080418154959.htm
Another here done at U of CA at Irvine:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s737673.htm
There are dozens like those, by very reputable professionals, that say yes, cannaboids can function quite well as both an anti-anxiety and anti-depressive agent.
I’d recommend the book “Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine:” by Dr. Lester Grinspoon, a professor at Harvard Medical School. He says things like the following:
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You can get a study to say just about anything you want when it comes to pot. I have too much real life experience to be convinced. It numbs your brain, sure, and you may think you are relaxed, but take your blood pressure and take your pulse and find out differently. In addition it is well known to cause paranoia. And recently police are testing for it after accidents ….as well as other drugs that cause dumb driving as surely as alcohol does.
Well, I have lots of real life experience as well, and know (and we have treated as patients) plenty of people who have smoked it for 30 years now, have successful and happy families and careers, and have had nary a bad effect. Zip, nada, none.
We’ll have to disagree, just pointing out that my real life experience is just as valid as yours.
I don’t see medical marijuana or pot legalization on the Obamanoply board…
(some of it is stupid “socialism, oh noes!” stuff, but other parts of it are more accurate.)
According to Big O the feds would quit hassling/raiding cannabis clubs that are legal under state law.
They haven’t stopped.
Just one of a very long list of things Barry was going to do, BUT…
~SIgh~ If the rightwingers could only lampoon with integrity. They have to lie. It’s pathological. They lie about their enemies when the truth is more damaging.
True, but the Dems have the same problem, they just do it 21st century style, GOP stuck in last century.
Well, as has been stated on TC many times before the Dems are morphing into the GOP. Axelrod and company learned all the very worst possible lessons from Karl Rove, et al., and doubled down on every despicable tactic. They even got a neo-phyte know nothing as a figure head. That’s the world we live in, God knows what is to come next.
Obama is more Bush than Bush. I hope we don’t have to find out what more Obama than Obama looks like.
Let’s not stop at just weed. How about poppies? It’s a twofer. With mass production we could actually win the war on terror (and that other war on drugs!) by pricing the Taliban out of the poppy market. We’d be like the Wal-mart of drugs … crushing the competition.
Am I a genius or what?
That would be better than criminalizing addiction.
If they grew pot instead and Hemp they wouldn’t be so broke and maybe they would mellow out and drop the misogyny too.
Oh well the Village can’t have anything that roots out misogyny so there goes that.
We will send over myiq2xu and Dandy Tiger to run the operation and report back if they are making progress. The pot just may stop the WAR… :oops’, forgot ‘Overseas Contingency Operations’ so says President Obama.
Yep. I’ve been saying this for a long time. To solve California’s financial problems all we’ve got to do is get rid of Prop 13 and legalize Marijuana.
I agree. My dad used to say it all the time and he was alive during prohibition and his father was a bootlegger. If only grandpa didn’t indulge in the sauce as much as he did, we’d be as rich as the Kennedys!
Anyway, my dad said that in order to deal in illegal substances successfully, you have to pay a whole lot of people off. Dad speculated that drugs produce so much money and that the payoffs are so large to politicians, law enforcement, border patrol, etc, that it’s just not in their best interest to legalize.
Maybe now, that the local, state, and federal coffers are so low, they will consider legalizing and taxing. Too late for me. It agravates my arthritis.
Prohibition is not a cure for addiction – it is a source of income for crooks.
Well said!
sometimes it is the cure for addiction, because for some addicts, being in prison is the one thing that finally shames them enough to quit and live rather than slowly killing themselves.
Washington Post apologizes for Clinton joke
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 6, 2009 11:38 AM
WASHINGTON — Two Washington Post journalists are apologizing and their satirical online video series has been canceled following criticism of a joke they told about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the “Mouthpiece Theater” series Wednesday after pulling the latest episode from the paper’s Web site Friday.
In the video, columnist Dana Milbank and White House correspondent and blogger Chris Cillizza appeared in smoking jackets to discuss the kinds of beer politicians might drink. Milbank said he couldn’t reveal to whom President Barack Obama would serve a drink called “Mad B—- Beer.” That line was followed by a brief picture of Clinton.
The group Women, Action and the Media complained to the Post in a letter signed by 32 women. They called the video “sexist” and “tasteless.”
“I regret that we put up that image,” Milbank said, “and while I highly doubt the secretary of state has seen ‘Mouthpiece Theater,’ I would be honored to have the opportunity to apologize to her over a beer.”
Cillizza said the joke was over the line and that the show was not funny.
Brauchli called the joke “a serious lapse.”
The episode follows an apology from Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth last month after a flier surfaced announcing plans to charge business leaders and lobbyists for intimate dinner chats at her home with government officials and the newspaper’s journalists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/06/AR2009080601704_pf.html
Dana and Chris cry into their beers. So sad.
It isn’t good manners to call other human beings pieces of sh*t, so how do you guys fell about “turd fragments?”
I always thought that Milbank and Cillizza’s reporting was a little biased and whacked, but I wasn’t sure it wasn’t just me who was biased. But, naw, it’s them.
Posterior orifices, both.
Washington Post’s New Editorial Team-TDAAWC (WOW…looks like ‘Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza, GOT POSTED’! …how does it feel BOYZ)
NO beer summit for you BOYZ! Not gonna happen!
When she was a primary candidate, you could say any d*mned thing about her without a blink….now she’s owed apologies because she works for Obama. Scary to have a prez so in control of the media, bu refreshing in a sad way, I guess, that she is protected….now.
NO, it’s not because she works for the United States of America under the Obama Administration (remember his speech writer is still working for him), it’s because, there are web sites that PUSH BACK when they go after her. NO, many didn’t do the UNITY PONY DANCE…Hillary’s Army is still engaged and ready. Knitting Needles (check), key board (check)…. 😉
…two-by-four (check) 🙂
Should we care that Sotomayor is confirmed? I’ll try if you guys thin I should.
I care… I say congrats to her.
No disrespect to her personally. It is just atht it was a forgone conclusion. It doesn’t feel like news.
Yeah, the news itself was when Obama nominated her. But, she made it through the GOP’s hazing which means another loss for misogyny and bigotry, so there’s that.
Whoopee. OK I’m over the joy now.
well its done and like most things in government we like it or lump it.
Hakim and Olga Tanon (Ah ya alby) Habibi .Beautiful blend of arabic and spanish, pop, and dance with some urban flavor. Sonia (honorary coquí) was born in New York but just to irritate those that said she was born in Puerto Rico…Ay Caramba!
“What if the State of California took the weed and sold it?”
LOl, I think they already do. Well perhaps not the State itself, but the people. There are whole towns whose economy only manages to exist because of marijuana sales. That’s how the sheriff, the city council get paid. Kind of like my state during prohibition. Nobody had a legit job around here, the government and the banks squeezed you so tight you couldn’t make a living. Anybody that had a dingy or a skiff ran rum.
Americans are an inventive bunch. Sometimes I think we forget about how strongly planted this country’s roots are in underground economies.
If it weren’t for ganja, my entire county (Humboldt) would be in the tank, instead of only most of it.
Great idea, legalize and tax pot. Then also quit spending money trying to eradicate pot and putting people in prison for smoking, growing or trading pot and think of the money that could be generated!
myiq2xu,
Seen this? It’s excellent, imho.
http://www.theunionmovie.com/TheUnionWeb.html
I’m all for decriminalizing weed. It’s nothing like booze, which is the worst (disease, domestic violence, regular freakin violence, work missed, auto-related death and injury, etc).
Yeah, too much weed can make people depressed or lead to psychological problems, but again, nothing like legalized booze.
Also, I know people say weed is the “gateway drug”…it is NOT–booze is. Kids try drinking first all the time and probably half of them try weed buzzed on drink, whatever.
I’m just wondering: if it is legalized who would sell it? How would gov. profit? Would the FDA regulate it? How would that all work? What would the drug dealers do?
Booze is the gateway to more booze, pot is the gateway to other “drugs”. In fact, most people I know who have become addicted started with pot and went to booze because it was easier to get.
Alcohol is consumed by multiple times the amount of people who use illegal drugs (or legal drugs illegally). So you would think that alcohol was actually more of a problem in regards to causing crime, death by car etc… but it is not. That is a fallacy. More alcoholics yes, but more crime and violence due to drinking. Nope. Almost all violent crime these days have to do with drugs, the need for them and the huge money that is being made selling them.
Put every drug dealer in jail and throw away the key and I would be happy. The average bartender when confronted by someone who has had too much to drink with shut them down for the night. The average drug deal when confronted with someone who is near death will sell them another rock, or bag or whatever. In fact when someone finally goes to rehab rather than dying, the average drug dealer will show up with free shit to keep their customer.
I will bet there is not a single addict in this conversation. Because people who really know about this are either at a meeting or actively pursuing their next fix.
And I won’t even bore you all with the endless tales I have about the relationships and lives I have watched ruined by grass. Yeah, it’s not as dramatic as meth or crack or coke or heroin or even xanax.
It is also not true that drug use only hurts the user. I can testify to the families that are tortured by, stolen from, abused by and suffer the loss of both a relationship, but sometimes the life of a loved one. This is going to stop because it is made legal. I don’t think so.
The Health Insurers Have Already Won
How UnitedHealth and rival carriers, maneuvering behind the scenes in Washington, shaped health-care reform for their own benefit
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_33/b4143034820260.htm
If this doesn’t piss you off, maybe you should check for a pulse.
It infuriates me. And what really sickened me was this particularly incestuous bit about United Health’s best lobbyist:
From Hoyer’s office, to Goldman, to Fannie, to United Health – they are ALL fucking CONNECTED and in BED together. It’s like a goddamn incestuous orgy on the Hill. We don’t even figure in this at all.
We don’t figure in at all, except to pay for the scams. I’ve always been something of a cynic since the government sent me to SE Asia back when, but never like now. I’m starting to despise them all.
Me, too. I’ve always figured that my govt in general was at it’s best semi-competent and marginally corrupt. Most govts are. And since I’m a practical grown-up, I could live with that, and work to get it a shade or two better in good years. I have not been a starry-eyed utopian since…well…pretty much ever.
But this has reached the point that they don’t even have any freaking shame or limits anymore. I mean, NONE.