Thought i would share my response to a blog posted by Paul Armentno of NORML.org that was posted at thehill.com.
Please leave comments on the blog at thehill.com to tell lawmakers how you feel about this issue.
Here it is...
It almost seems as though the US government likes to keep putting billions of US dollars in the hands of foreign and violent drug cartels because the government has taken absolutely no action to do otherwise. If we were to have a system in place to tax and regulate marijuana use by responsible adults we would effectively put the drug cartels out of business and we would keep the billions of dollars that are spent in the drug trade in the US market. This would effectively add another billion dollar industry to the US economy and help get our national debt back down to a manageable level via a sales tax on the purchase of marijuana (not to mention the tax money that we would save from not placing non violent offenders in prisons and arresting 1 marijuana smoker every 18 seconds in the US keep in mind that it cost $25,000 to keep 1 person in prison for year).This would create more revenue to help pay for better parks, better education systems, better health care for all Americans, and better homeland security and a better overall economy and job market, we could even begin to lower that 14 trillion dollar national debt.
It's time that the US gov learns that most (if not all) of the problems with marijuana use stems from prohibition itself. The violence that we are told marijuana creates... Prohibition is the cause. The dangers of not knowing what chemicals could be added to marijuana... Prohibition is the cause since there are no federal mandates on what can go in/on marijuana. Minors having easier access to marijuana than tobacco and alcohol... Prohibition is the cause there again there are no federal mandates regulating the sale of marijuana to responsible adults drug dealers don't check ID's except in the states that allow medical use of marijuana. If we were to have federal regulation on marijuana we would effectively eliminate all of these problems and more.
Marijuana is essentially harmless to the user and there have been thousands of peer reviewed scientific research paper written on the subject. Marijuana does not kill, it does not cause addiction, and there are relatively few negative impacts that it's use can have on the human body. Compare this to the result of tobacco use and alcohol use and you'll wonder why this nation allows the legal consumption of these products. Tobacco use is responsible for over 400,000 death every year and alcohol comes in at 50,000. Why is our government so set on keeping this illegal and telling the public that "marijuana is dangerous" while we can go to the gas station and buy a product that has been proven to be extremely lethal?
It is truly amazing to me from reading the comments on this page to see such a huge agreement on this issue i believe i only saw 1 negative comment about the legalization of marijuana out of the almost 300 comments posted! This goes to show that our government has that support of the people to legalize marijuana use and will not have any political backlash from doing so.
There is really no point to continue 73 years of failed public policy. End this prohibition it's what the American public wants.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: AlterNet
Author: aquaticclay
Contact: AlterNet
Copyright: 2010 AlterNet
Website: Let's end prohibition of marijuana My response to thehill.com blog
Please leave comments on the blog at thehill.com to tell lawmakers how you feel about this issue.
Here it is...
It almost seems as though the US government likes to keep putting billions of US dollars in the hands of foreign and violent drug cartels because the government has taken absolutely no action to do otherwise. If we were to have a system in place to tax and regulate marijuana use by responsible adults we would effectively put the drug cartels out of business and we would keep the billions of dollars that are spent in the drug trade in the US market. This would effectively add another billion dollar industry to the US economy and help get our national debt back down to a manageable level via a sales tax on the purchase of marijuana (not to mention the tax money that we would save from not placing non violent offenders in prisons and arresting 1 marijuana smoker every 18 seconds in the US keep in mind that it cost $25,000 to keep 1 person in prison for year).This would create more revenue to help pay for better parks, better education systems, better health care for all Americans, and better homeland security and a better overall economy and job market, we could even begin to lower that 14 trillion dollar national debt.
It's time that the US gov learns that most (if not all) of the problems with marijuana use stems from prohibition itself. The violence that we are told marijuana creates... Prohibition is the cause. The dangers of not knowing what chemicals could be added to marijuana... Prohibition is the cause since there are no federal mandates on what can go in/on marijuana. Minors having easier access to marijuana than tobacco and alcohol... Prohibition is the cause there again there are no federal mandates regulating the sale of marijuana to responsible adults drug dealers don't check ID's except in the states that allow medical use of marijuana. If we were to have federal regulation on marijuana we would effectively eliminate all of these problems and more.
Marijuana is essentially harmless to the user and there have been thousands of peer reviewed scientific research paper written on the subject. Marijuana does not kill, it does not cause addiction, and there are relatively few negative impacts that it's use can have on the human body. Compare this to the result of tobacco use and alcohol use and you'll wonder why this nation allows the legal consumption of these products. Tobacco use is responsible for over 400,000 death every year and alcohol comes in at 50,000. Why is our government so set on keeping this illegal and telling the public that "marijuana is dangerous" while we can go to the gas station and buy a product that has been proven to be extremely lethal?
It is truly amazing to me from reading the comments on this page to see such a huge agreement on this issue i believe i only saw 1 negative comment about the legalization of marijuana out of the almost 300 comments posted! This goes to show that our government has that support of the people to legalize marijuana use and will not have any political backlash from doing so.
There is really no point to continue 73 years of failed public policy. End this prohibition it's what the American public wants.
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: AlterNet
Author: aquaticclay
Contact: AlterNet
Copyright: 2010 AlterNet
Website: Let's end prohibition of marijuana My response to thehill.com blog
