[420 Girl]

This fall, when Californians go to the polls to pick a governor and senator, they will also be voting on the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 that, if approved, will legalize and authorize the taxation of what some estimates show to be the state's number one cash crop.

California has had a medicinal pot program in place for several years now, with dispensaries set up in most communities, so this new proposal is a logical next step and remains true to the state’s pioneering reputation.

Recent polling has shown that the measure stands a good chance of passing and that is encouraging, because if there is one issue most needing this country to pull its head out of its collective rear end and consider rationally, it is this one.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has estimated that U.S. taxpayers spend upwards of $10 billion a year arresting and prosecuting people for crimes related to pot. FBI statistics show that almost half of the drug arrests in this country each year are for marijuana and that the vast majority of those arrests are for simple possession.

In the last ten years, six million mostly young and productive Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges and had their lives thrown into disarray.

Think about that figure. Six million!

It’s astonishing -- more than the populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. What an enormous investment of cash, time and manpower into an endeavor that has never shown any real results.

Worse yet, in order to keep all those evil pot smokers behind bars as required by law and at the same time obey court orders to lessen crowding in the facilities, often more dangerous criminals are being released early or put in less secure county jails.

Haven’t we had enough yet? Is this plant that people have enjoyed for centuries really so threatening to the American way of life that it warrants this level of madness? Even outgoing California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger once told British GQ that it wasn’t a drug, that it was a leaf, and he’s right. Can we really outlaw nature?

Hopefully a long overdue national turn to sanity regarding this subject will began in California this November.


NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: Gather
Author: DAVID SERVATIUS
Contact: Gather
Copyright: 2010 Gather Inc.
Website: California marijuana legalization initiative is common sense drug policy

* Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article


http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...ug-policy.html