The story and it's reporter Mandalit Del Barco discuss the growing trend in California, and in particular Humboldt County, and the fact that the production and sale whether legal or illegal is a quickly rising commodity in California today. She speaks to several California representatives including: enforcement agents of the group CAMP, or (Campaign Against Marijuana Planting), retired Humboldt County Sheriff's Lt. Steve Cobine, Jack Nelsen of California's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, District Attorney Paul Gallegos, Humboldt County Sheriff Gary Philip, and even a local college student Lydia Katz. All of the people Mandalit interviews have ranging opinions but one opinion seems to be fairly predominate; marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and taxed in it's entirety.
Of course there are many factors causing this action, which could quite possibly not only pull the U.S. out of a financial crisis but also create an entirely new job market not to mention a whole new type of viable natural resource. To begin, there is still a very widespread market within the states that have decriminalized marijuana for the illegal growth and sale of marijuana. A few of the representatives Mandalit interviews discuss the fact that though there are upwards of 1,000 different places within Los Angeles alone in which anyone with a Prop. 215 card can purchase marijuana legally, which is almost everyone who applies for it, drug trafficking cartels produce and sell hundreds of thousands of plants in any given grow. Jack Nelsen states that in California, "the marijuana business exploded after voters passed Proposition 215." This poses a slight, yet resolvable, problem on the regulation of marijuana.
The main factor in the regulation, taxing, and legal sale of marijuana lies within the federal government's unwillingness to nationally legalize the plant. Even Humboldt County Sheriff's Sgt. Wayne Hanson states, "Part of me wants marijuana legalized because it would take away the wealth, greed, and violence." He goes on to say that the problem is, "it would have to be legalized in all of the U.S., not just California....otherwise you would just have all the riffraff coming in to make money to sell to the other states."
Marijuana has for years, basically since just before 1970, been looked down on legally as a drug which can be abused like any other and a burden on our society although a vast number of American citizens beg to differ. Yes marijuana is most widely used as a means of getting high but lets look at the underlying facts. Marijuana is not nor has it ever been addictive. It is also the only drug which has no statistical record of being a sole cause of violent acts. Marijuana is the only drug in which it is impossible to overdoes on and is also the only drug which serves purposes outside of it's use for it's mind altering chemicals. To start, marijuana has been proven to be used for medicinal purposes. It is the only naturally occurring drug that is widely used today to cure and/or relieve a wide range different ailments including cancer. Marijuana is also the only drug which it's byproducts can be broken down and used to manufacture a variety of useful products for society. Hemp is used all over the world and it oils are even sold in skin care products, it can be used to make rope or other fabrics to create clothes and has even been used in the past to make a form of paper. In short, marijuana has almost unlimited uses and the idea that we as a society are not utilizing everyone of them is absurd.
In conclusion, the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana could provide for so many outs for not only the citizens of the U.S. and it's marijuana users, but also the U.S. as a whole. The solutions to the various problems our country is currently facing that could be so easily solved by the simple national decriminalization of one little plant are vast. Not only could it save us a ton of grief in the future but it could also stabilize our economy and provide for several different benefits for citizens across the nation and who knows, maybe this one little plant could help bring peace within a nation that could certainly use it.
Good post, Posted by Ryan this sounds like an interesting article. I agree with Ryan's blog it gives us detailed info and conclusion about the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana. Several controlled clinical trials have been carried out in the last few years, using either smoked marijuana or a mouth spray that contains an extract of the marijuana plant. The results are quite consistent. They show that marijuana improves the well-being of patients with multiple sclerosis and alleviates chronic pain in patients with damage or dysfunction of nerve fibers (so-called neuropathic pain). Other work has shown that marijuana and its active ingredient THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) reduce the nausea that accompanies chemotherapy, stimulate appetite in AIDS wasting syndrome and lessen tics in Tourette’s syndrome.
ReplyDeleteI am not advocating that anyone should or shouldn't use marijuana. I am however saying that anyone using it in a responsible way should not be punished for it. If regulated like alcohol is, marijuana would offer revenue for federal, state and local projects and communities. It's Time for a change! I demand the decriminalization, legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana, and I expect our lawmakers to heed this call.