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The Lance FacebookBy Jocelyn Cazares
Editor
With the November elections approaching, you’ll hear talking political heads, or celebrities like Cheech and Chong going around the state telling California residents that they have the opportunity to reduce crime and prison costs, create jobs, reduce police corruption, and fix the economy.
This magic bullet? Marijuana.
Yes, this November voters can decide whether to legalize pot throughout the state.
If you’re in dire conditions, like the state of California’s economy, what else can you do? This is a perfect time for our state to enter the drug-dealing business.
In spite of having some of the highest tax rates in the nation, California continues to spend money, while state employees across the board are facing layoffs. Apparently, this doesn’t matter to the suits in Sacramento. Instead, they seem to think that this is the perfect time to grow—literally—government.
If the state can barely afford the employees it already has, why not hire more? Sounds like a good idea, right? Growers, cultivators, record keepers and vendors of California bud will all be hired to ensure proper taxation and distribution.
How about an oxymoronic claim stated in the bill itself? One of the passages states that besides establishing the “wholesale and retail sales regulation program,” taxation within the proposal includes, “special fees to fund drug abuse prevention programs.”
So, California is going to sell pot and use a small amount of the proceeds to fund drug abuse prevention programs. However, if you want to maximize sales of a product, it does not make sense to spend money to subsidize programs that tell people not to use it.
The proposal also “institutes a one-ounce personal possession limit and allows for limited personal cultivation.” However, I thought the state was responsible for cultivating it.
Allowing for such a thing would lead to a black market for marijuana, as those in possession of it would have enough to sell for a reduced price that would not include high taxes.
It’s also interesting that California set the age limit for marijuana use/cultivation/possession at 21. Just like alcohol, what are the odds that young adults under 21 won’t ever gain access to marijuana?
Marijuana use in California is seemingly accepted. There are many “smoke shops” spread around town, selling bongs and pipes typically not used for smoking tobacco. Last Tuesday was April 20, the unofficial marijuana user’s day.
If you’re a pot smoker, what’s wrong with the way things are? If you’re caught with a small amount on you, the fines aren’t steep. There are places to buy pipes and paper, and even a special day recognizing the fact that marijuana use is still occurring. You get a little rush, being defiant as you purchase your package, and, for you, once you’re home, life is good.
If it isn’t broken, why fix it? If you’re a user, why would you want the government regulating another aspect of your life?
Don’t be fooled, the upcoming proposition is just another way to take more of your tax money and blaze it up on government waste.
First of all im no expert on marijuana nor have i tried it but..
It seems like California spends so much money on marijuana drug enforcement that the state would alone save a ton.
If you look back at prohibition of alcohol what happend well people still found a way to get their alchol and you know who was profiting from it? Gangsters and Thugs who used the money for crime. same thing is happening with the prohibiton of marijuana, Drug cartels from mexico making bank and using their money to kill and scare people. Marijuana should be legalised and regulated just like cigs or alcohol becase if you look at the statistics
Tobacco 435,000
poor diet and physical inactivity 365.000
alcohol – 85,000
Motor Vehicle accidents 26,000
Adeverse reaction to prescription drugs 32,000
Marijuana 0
I believe that is yearly. Im also sure there have been people who have missused it and done something stupid where it has lead to a death similar to maybe drunk driving. The point is that anything can be abused even water.
Id be perfectly happy if they kept marijuana illegal but also made cigs and alcohol illegal.
You clearly need to do some research outside the confines of your Catholic High School surroundings. Do me a favor and look up Portugal and its anti-prohibition stance. The European nation is traditionally a catholic nation that has MORE than benifited from easing its drug-laws. And I am not just speaking in terms of money, but statistics. Statistics such as middle-high school experimentation is down, Abuse is down, treatment for abuse is up, crime is down and HIV diagnosis is down, all have improved dramatically.
Meanwhile, America has the highest numbers in abuse and use, per capita.
Most illegal drugs kill less people than aspirin, others are thought to be better recreational alternatives to the legal nicotine and alchohol, and a select couple of them including MDMA aka Ecstasy are hailed as possible “miracle” drugs for various ailgments ranging from Cancer to obesity to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
By the way, do you drink caffine?
Look up LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), a law-enforcement agency made up of retired and current law enforcement officers from agenencies ranging from the city P.D.’s to the D.E.A., and they’re tired of losing fellow officers and multitudes of tax-payer money to fight the alleged “war on drugs”.
Take another fact into consideration, how much power should man permit his fellow man to have over his own will? Didn’t your god give man free will? Wasn’t that the point of the crucifixion?
Open your eyes, and don’t allow yourself to be spoon-fed. There is a big wide world out there, so live in it before you make judgements about how it works.
Good luck!
M.A. (Mercilous Adams)