[420 Girl]

You may have heard the rumblings in the news media… it’s the dawn of a bright new era in America’s long running Drug War. For the very first time since Nancy Reagan uttered those three dirty little words- Just Say No- it seems the feds are are in a tentative retreat.

The United States has never been closer to legalizing the drug that isn’t really a drug, marijuana.

Here in California, we enjoy the most lax personal-use marijuana legislation in the nation. Anyone who’s ever taken a deep toke off a spliff or sucked down a phat bong hit in the Golden State knows all about Prop. 215, the 1996 ballot vote that legalized the purchase and use of medical marijuana from registered ‘dispensaries.’ It’s been about thirteen years now since Prop. 215 was enacted and as far as I can see, the world still hasn’t come to an end… despite what the ballot’s many protestors (most of them from out-of-state) have warned and wailed about.

It’s easier to score a baggie of pot in California than anywhere else in the United States… and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Despite it’s many obvious medicinal benefits, smoking marijuana, from what I hear, is actually quite a soothing, pleasant experience, albeit one that may produce an uncontrollable fit of the giggles. In all seriousness, no-one has ever died from a marijuana overdose- ever.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that marijuana is actually not at all that dangerous. In fact, considering the huge number of Americans who smoke or have smoked marijuana, it’s a substance that should be universally decriminalized, if not outright legalized.

And it seems I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, from San Francisco (the green capital of America’s pot-legalization movement), believes its time the Golden State became the first in the United States to tax and legalize marijuana. And he’s not alone. Ammiano not only has the full support of the powerful lobby group the Medical Marijuana Union, he also has the Mayor of San Francisco- Gavin Newsome- in his corner.

By conservative estimates, California’s semi-legal pot industry (Prop. 215 is as yet unrecognised by Federal powers that be) is worth about $14 billion a year. That means marijuana is pretty much California’s biggest cash crop, beating out vegetables and grapes by a very wide margin. This is a bottom-line Ammiano has been championing of late, especially in the light of the financial crisis that grips the state and the nation.

A $14 billion dollar industry will net at least $1 billion of taxes per year for California’s coffers. Ammiano advocates using a similar regulatory structure to that which is currently used for selling alcohol. Not only will this provide the necessary funds to pull California out of the mire, it will also serve to eliminate a large (though generally harmless) segment of the criminal population- the humble pot dealer. It will also do immeasurable damage to the drug cartels who run the miracle weed over the borders of Canada and Mexico.

Recently, Attorney General Eric Holder issued a decree promising the end of DEA and federal-sponsored raids on medical marijuana dispensaries and providers. This is a major step towards recognizing the state rights that the Bush Administration deemed ‘illegal’, and, of course, good news for California legal dispensary operators, who have been the hardest hit by DEA incursions. You can bet your bottom dollar that dispensaries will increase in number in the San Fernando Valley, in which the medical marijuana movement is already firmly rooted.

If Ammiano has his way- and considering the liberal-leaning and progressive nature of California’s voting public, it’s a distinct possibility- perhaps this state will once again lead the way for the nation as a whole. If marijuana is legalized on a state-by-state or even federal level, the resulting influx of tax dollars could be just the ticket to save us all from a depression more dangerous than the one so devastating history had to label it ‘great’.

If America is to survive the long battle ahead, desperate measures must be taken. I for one believe the legalization of a relatively harmless plant- one that grows wild in certain parts of the world- can be the catalyst to turn our failing economy around. Hundreds of thousands of jobs will be created as state and federal-sponsored dispensaries pop up around the nation. Long-established drug runners and pushing rings will suffer greatly, leaving our shores for greener pastures. Within a few short years our national deficit could disappear entirely, as America tunes in, turns on and drops out.

Stoners of America and the world, unite. Support heroes like Tom Ammiano and the brave men and women who staff your local dispensary. It’s time to end the persecution of a harmless plant for political gain. With the United States facing down a potential financial apocalypse, waging two wars on foreign soil and facing internal division unlike anything seen since the Civil War, maybe it’s time we all chilled out for a while and hit the peace-pipe.


STOP THE DEPRESSION- STONERS IN SESSION!

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