Legalize Marijuana

Written by Bill Denneen | 29 March 2009

Legalization of marijuana would save billions. I used to grow marijuana in my garden each year for my glaucoma. I have now quit growing my own because Sheriff Hedges is after me and I'd rather go blind than go to jail. Let’s face it; our ‘War on Drugs’ has failed with this plant. The ‘War on Drugs’ was initiated by President Nixon to subdue pot smoking, Viet Nam protestors. Law enforcement got ‘pork’ like fancy helicopters, radios, more troops and extra funding to enforce marijuana laws.

Our overcrowded jails house more than 800,000 marijuana violators each year. In California it costs $43,000 per year per prisoner for a total of $24 billion. That's a lot of money spent on prison time that has not significantly reduced marijuana usage. Authorities have not controlled this plant. They have just raised its value and made prison crowding even worse. Its production has increased from 1,000 metric tons to 10,000 metric tons in just 25 years.

The street value of a single mature marijuana plant is about $4,000. Marijuana is the largest cash crop in the United States.  A recent report contends that the market value of pot produced in the U.S. exceeds $35 billion—far more than the value of the top three legal cash crops; corn, soybeans and hay. California is responsible for more than a third of our nation’s cannabis harvest, with an estimated production of $13.8 billion. Marijuana is the top cash crop in a dozen other states as well. It is estimated that marijuana production has increased tenfold in the past quarter century despite an exhaustive anti-drug effort by law enforcement. If marijuana were legal and taxed to the max this would yield a lot of money. In countries where it has been legalized (Holland) the drug is less of a problem. The time has come for America to re-evaluate its federal laws regarding this plant.

It disturbs me that I could legally return to my cigarette addiction of 40 years while at the same time I could be arrested for growing my one marijuana plant for glaucoma. The earliest writings about marijuana go back 4737 years to a Chinese pharmacological reference. It's an herb that has been grown since the start of civilization and agriculture.

Though it is against Federal Law, the California Medical Marijuana Initiative, adopted as Prop. 215, makes it possible for physicians to prescribe marijuana for patients suffering from cancer, AIDS, anorexia, migraine, arthritis, and other illnesses, The current "test case" is that of Charles Lynch who needed medical marijuana and decided to open a dispensary in Morro Bay rather than drive to L.A. to get his medication. Sheriff Hedges arrested him at taxpayer expense despite Prop.215. Lynch's dispensary provided 2,000 patients with safe, legal access to medical marijuana.

It is nonsensical that California's largest agricultural industry remains untaxed and wastes so much money in attempting and failing to control marijuana. The present set-up makes growing it very lucrative thus causing abundant criminal activity (e.g. Mexico). The time has come to legalize marijuana and tax its sale to the max.

Bill Denneen
Nipomo, CA