Interesting (but not surprising) article in the Independent today: High times for farmers as cannabis is named America's biggest cash crop :
The report's author, Jon Gettman, says it is "larger than cotton in Alabama, larger than grapes, vegetables and hay in California, larger than peanuts in Georgia, and larger than tobacco in South and North Carolina".Oh, the tax revenue that could be made if the government got its head out of its rectum:
US Marijuana cultivation is worth more than $35bn (£18bn) per year. And that is a conservative estimate, based on government price surveys, Mr Gettman says. Corn, the largest legitimate crop, is worth just over $23bn and soybeans around $17bn. "Despite years of effort by law enforcement, they're not getting rid of it," Mr Gettman told the Los Angeles Times ahead of his report's publication yesterday in The Bulletin of Cannabis Reform.It's been said before, but aside from our retarded foreign policies, our marijuana laws are some of the most irrational things about this country. I mean, it's not like people start beating their wives' heads in after toking up a few.. that would be that other drug, you know, the liquid, legal one. When will the madness end?
"The fact that marijuana is America's number-one cash crop after more than three decades of governmental eradication efforts is the clearest illustration that our present marijuana laws are a complete failure," said Rob Kampia, executive director of Washington's Marijuana Policy Project.
3 comments:
A society has the right and duty to define social norms as it sees fit. This is why we have laws restricting individual behavior that might only hurt oneself, ie pot-smoking.
This is not "mob rule" and that phrase, in terms of the way the Founder's used it, doesn't apply to this case.
If we allow gay "marriage", then as a matter of principle, explain why we shouldn't allow polygamist or bigamists to marry as well?
The "slipper slope" argument is apropos ...
I can give you several instances where America has "publicly acknowledged failures" as evidenced by the US government CHANGING ITS LAWS.
Prohibition, slavery, etc.
This is the way a government of a republic acknowledges that it made a mistake.
Yes President Bush has low approval ratings.... do you know where he stands vis a vie is contemporaries? Ie Japan's Abe, Germany's Merkel, UK's Blair, France's Chirac, etc.?
Check out their approval ratings and then you might not think Bush's low approval ratings are so dramatic in context.
Comparing Bush's CURRENT approval ratings to past presidents won't work either. You must wait for Bush to be out of office for many years, so that history can judge him objectively.
Truman had similiarly low approval ratings when he left office (scandalous administration) but now is considered one of the top presidents of all time
First off, thank you for stopping by...
As far as your pot argument goes, I don't see how any true lover of freedom can support laws that 'protect one from oneself'. I don't need protecting from myself, thank you. And in regards to pot in particular, alcohol and tobacco are demonstrably much more harmful, yet the government is ok with that, you don't see a problem here? If you were to study the history of our drug laws, pot wasn't illegal until it started to be used by a lot of minorities...and heaven forbid if they gave some of that devil weed to the white women.
That's the problem with some of you conservatives, you are so afraid of everything, so resistant to the idea that not everyone thinks like you, you submit to authority, and need to be led. What's made it worse is you've submitted to an utter moron, a cokehead preppie who has failed at just about everything in life, most of which was handed to him, and likes to act like a cowboy.
There can be an argument made for the prohibition of truly deadly drugs, such as heroin and the like, but pot laws are ridiculous.
Your gay marriage argument, it's one I've heard a billion times before, about the 'slippery slope'. Since civil unions passed in VT, there haven't been people calling for the legalization of incest, or bigamy for that matter. And you know why? Incest is not the same as homosexuality,and it is very degrading and insulting to imply that. It's like me comparing it to dumb Republicans...if we elect them, what's next, Nazis and the KKK in office? See the absurdity?
And the 'slippery slope' hasn't happened in Massachusetts or any of the European countries where it is allowed either. It's time to find a new argument. And 'protecting traditional marriage' isn't going to work either, because:
1)Up until the early part of the 20th century, marriages were usually not done out of romance, they were arranged, or done for economic reasons. Many Old Testament figures had many wives (bigamy). Certainly, you're not advocating protecting that, are you?
2)What needs to be protected, one's sense of privilege? The fact that gays marry should have no bearing whatsoever on your own marriage. If it does, then you obviously have some other problems in your marriage that have nothing to do with gay people.
As far as Bush's legacy, I'm not looking at approval ratings. I simply ask the question, Has this man done ANYTHING to make America safer, stronger, more just, cleaner, smarter, less violent, more equitable, more fiscally sound? And the answer is a resounding NO. In many cases, it's the opposite. I don't care how Merkel or Blair, or whoever are percieved. They are not running our country. It is irrelevant, we don't live there or elect them. And aside from Blair, none of them lied their country into a completely unnecessary war.
He's squandered all of the respect we've gotten since WWII, when we were the good guys. For real. He is the laughing stock of the rest of the world, and a good part of this country. He is power hungry, and governs from exploiting the worst aspects of America: bigotry, xenophobia, fake machismo, anti-intellectualism and fundamentalist Christianity. He seems to have no connection to reality whatsoever, and his stupid war has made us less safe, not more. And THAT, my friend, is how he will be judged, not by his approval ratings. There is NOTHING positive that Bush will be remembered for, other than making the rich of this country richer, if one can consider that a positive. He has shown no real leadership, a willingness to listen and consider opposing viewpoints, and has about and out lied about many, many important things. In anutshell, he has done NOTHING to make this country better, and a lot to make it worse. he will be up there with Harding, Grant, (Benjamin) Harrison and Hoover as one of the worst presidents ever. He makes Reagan look like an intellectual powerhouse. Heck, he makes my cat look like Einstein.
Real liberty and freedom is not about 'protecting people from themselves', discriminating against others, or 'spreading democracy' at the end of a gun barrel. Why don't you understand that?
Once again, thanks for stopping in. I'd really like to hear your responses.
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