[420 Girl]

The news yesterday said that California is going to run out of money by March 2009. Before that happens our Governator is going to be forced to make drastic cuts somewhere in the state budget. Where?

Seems like someone always wants to make cuts in the education system right off the bat. Uh-uh Gov, don't do it. Californians, and for that matter, all Americans, need more affordable education, not less, to compete in the world market.

Cut open hours of our libraries? Close libraries? No, no, no, Gov! With the cost of everything going up and personal income going down, availability of libraries is more important than ever before. The use of libraries has already gone way up in this dismal economy. Don't mess around with that, Gov. We book worms will hate you if you do that. A lot of us express our opinions by voting, you know.

Jack up the costs of license fees? Double fines for misdemeanors? That will probably happen first. That will certainly be done on city and county levels. Then state entities will be sure to get their share, too.

I know none of this is original with me. I'm probably way behind in my observations and suggestions. Almost everything I can think of to raise more funds to balance the budget is going to hurt the general public a lot. I'm already hurting! We are all hurting, Gov! Almost everything is out of bounds if you don't want to stay off of our sssh- not popular list.

But there is a way to make up the shortfall. It might even take the ledgers out of the red in a hurry. As I said before, I'm sure mine is not an original idea, and sooner or later somebody is going to say it out loud. Probably they already have said it, but I didn't hear them.

So how about it, Governator-in-Charge, consider this: Remember way back near the biginning of the twentieth century when the good people of the nation figured out a way to save the souls and families of all the drunks and heavy drinkers in the country by passing a new amendment in the U.S. Constitution? No, you aren't old enough? So look it up. It didn't work. It just created wonderful ways for people, unafraid of breaking laws, to get rich quick. And the general public loved the excitement and adventure of sneaking into speakeasys or making their own booze at home in the bathtub or hidden under their chicken coops. Fooling the revenuers became the most popular game in the country. It took 11 years of diligent interception of moonshiners and gangsters, but finally Elliot Ness and the government gave it up, and drinking alcoholic beverages was made legal again.

Guess what, the same thing is happening these days. Only this time the police and revenuers are up against a more versatile enemy. This time they are battling the use of a plant that grows easily in gardens hidden among the tomato plants. It flourishes in basements and windowless sheds with the help of growing lamps. It grows like a weed all across the country. It is a weed! It is a pretty plant called marijuana - no, its name is marijuana. It is called pot. It grows easily almost everywhere, but its fans especially like imported varieties.

It is a no brainer that trying to keep people from using pot just doesn't work. It just makes the substance more expensive and increases the income of smugglers and illegal domestic growers. Our prisons are crammed with unlucky users who got caught selling pot. Chasing and capturing these lawbreakers is expensive, but the costs of keeping them incarcerated for years are a big factor in breaking the country's budgets.

So Gov, since treating the problem like the prohibition of alcohol isn't working, lets cut it out. Let's make the use of marijuana legal. Then it turns the whole story around. First off, we can charge big customs duties at the border for the imported varieties. Charge license fees to domestic growers and sellers. Tax the heck out of it at every opportunity. As soon as it becomes legal there are an awful lot of people who will rush to buy it.

It's harmful you say? After observing its use by other people for at least 50 years (I hate the stuff myself and I never could stand smoke of any kind in my lungs) I can't see it as harmful as the ingestion of alcoholic drinks. Regulate it. Arrest people under DUI laws who use it unwisely. Fine them if they drive under the influence. Fine them the same way people are arrested and fined for the misuse of alcohol.

So Gov, that's one way to balance the budget in a relatively painless and realistic manner. Other people will undoubtedly express different views, but I for one would vote to legalize marijuana.

How about you, Gov?

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...s-economy.html