The Huffington Post is currently featuring a very lengthy pro-legalization article entitledCalifornia Sprouts "Green Rush" from Marijuana that wonderfully describes what so many of us see as the many reasons for formally legalizing pot, especially in California. The authors state:
Marijuana has transformed California. Since the state became the first to legalize the drug for medicinal use, the weed the federal government puts in the same category as heroin and cocaine has become a major economic force.
No longer relegated to the underground, pot in California these days props up local economies, mints millionaires and feeds a thriving industry of startups designed to grow, market and distribute the drug.
Based on the quantity of marijuana authorities seized last year, the crop was worth an estimated $17 billion or more, dwarfing any other sector of the state's agricultural economy.
The authors state that marijuana is "virtually" legal already. More below the fold.
The Huffington Post article focuses on the micro and the macro impacts that virtually legalized marijuana is having in California already. The authors state that
Los Angeles County alone has more than 400 pot dispensaries and delivery services, nearly twice as many outlets as Amsterdam, the Netherlands capital whose coffee shops have for decades been synonymous with free-market marijuana.
Promoted as a way to shield people with AIDS, cancer and anorexia who use marijuana from prosecution, the 1996 Compassionate Use Act also permitted limited possession for "any other illness for which marijuana provides relief."
The broad language opened the door to doctors willing to recommend pot for nearly any ailment.
[snip]
California's pot dispensaries now have more in common with a corner grocery than a speakeasy. They advertise freely, offering discount coupons and daily specials.
The anti-legalization arguments raised in the article are so lame they are outright laughable, except for the last argument.
The plant's prominence does not come without costs, say some critics. Marijuana plantations in remote forests cause severe environmental damage. Indoor grow houses in some towns put rentals beyond the reach of students and young families. Rural counties with declining economies cannot attract new businesses because the available work force is caught up in the pot industry. Authorities link the drug to violent crime in otherwise quiet small towns.
The obvious response to that last "anti" argument is that making pot legal would end the violence.
The article notes that pro-pot activists want Californians to vote next year on a proposal that would allow adults to legally possess up to one ounce of pot and would allow cities to approve of sales and local taxes on the plant.
"Local governments are malnourished and in need of revenue badly," said Aaron Smith, state policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates legalization. "There's this multibillion-dollar industry that's the elephant in the room that they're not able to tap into."
Let's roll on having that vote.