[420 Girl]

Anyone with an interest in the debate over medical marijuana might want to keep an eye on California and Colorado, where prospects for the pot business have never been brighter. It’s not far-fetched to suggest a combination of financial need and the Obama administration’s benign neglect could make California the first state to legalize recreational use of marijuana next year.

Without making a big deal of it, the White House has made life a lot easier for pot enthusiasts. Although 13 states have approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes, it remains a crime under federal law, which means you may be free under state law to open a dispensary and start offering various types of pot, but can’t be sure a federal narcotics team won’t bust in and drag you off to jail anyway. If that happens, the U.S. Federal Court won’t let you use the state law in your defence.

The Bush administration, being staunchly anti-drug, raided regularly and often. But Barack Obama, during his campaign for the presidency, promised to lay off on the heavy-handed approach, and soon after taking office made good on his word. Attorney General Eric Holder said in February Washington would suspend the raids, and concentrate instead on dealers who violate both federal and state law.

That was like Christmas in July for pot enthusiasts and set off a surge, especially in Colorado, where a wave of “ganjapreneurs” have fuelled a growth industry in marijuana dispensaries. In doing so, they’ve pretty much shot down any pretense that medical marijuana can be liberalized without simultaneously increasing recreational access.

The Denver Westword, an “alternative” newspaper that has been following the boom, notes that since the state refused to limit the number of clients a dispensary could serve, it has been receiving applications from 400 new “patients” a day. “To meet that demand, at least 70 Colorado dispensaries have opened, forty in the metro area alone,” since July. Some come complete with lounges and munchies. There is such a variety of pot now on offer, the Westword is advertising for a pot critic to rate the competition.

It doesn’t take much to become a patient. A Westword reporter managed it with $200 and a note from a chiropractor. The federal Drug Enforcement Agency says two of the top three reasons for using medical marijuana are “chronic pain” and “mood disorders,” both catch-alls that could include anything from cancer to a bruised elbow. Other justifications include stress, anxiety, headaches, depression -- which would take in the bulk of the working world on any given day.

Doctors vary in their willingness to play along, though it’s not hard to find a compliant one. A California doctor runs ads offering “online prequalification for medical marijuana recommendation in the privacy of your home. Doctor approved authorization process insures completely confidential medical marijuana recommendation and pre-screening services.”

The big danger is that Washington could one day reverse its position again and begin raiding and prosecuting marijuana growers, dispensary operators or users. California’s well-organized activists are hoping to pre-empt that possibility by agitating for legalization while the tidings are favourable. The Associated Press reports that when the state elects a new governor next year, there could be as many as three measures on the ballot to legalize marijuana.

“The state already has a thriving marijuana trade, thanks to a first-of-its-kind 1996 ballot measure that allowed people to smoke pot for medical purposes. But full legalization could turn medical marijuana dispensaries into all-purpose pot stores, and the open sale of joints could become commonplace on mom-and-pop liquor store counters in liberal locales like Oakland and Santa Cruz,” it says.

Although President Obama opposes legalization, federal drug squads have limited manpower and usually depend on local narcotics officials to provide the bulk of enforcement; if pot was legalized, Washington would be stuck trying to compel local narcotics squads to enforce a law the state had rejected.

Apart from its enthusiasm for liberal social policies -- the more high-profile the better -- California has another, more compelling reason to embrace legalized pot: It’s broke. The state budget is in such a crisis it chopped $15 billion in spending this year, largely on education, and was forced to send out 327,000 IOUs worth $2 billion.

Legalizing marijuana would allow it to be licenced, regulated and -- best of all -- taxed, producing a juicy new revenue stream. It would probably also make it all but impossible for other states to maintain more restrictive laws. With more than 30 million Californians able to fill their baggies at the corner store, attempting to staunch the flow across borders would become an expensive exercise in self-deception.

So the economic crisis may do for potheads what decades of lobbying, protesting and defiance failed to achieve. And if Obama succeeds in pushing though health care reform, marijuana users might even find a way to make him pay for their supply.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...uana-boom.html