gls
05-06-2009, 10:46 PM
Is Marijuana Legalization a Big Government Plot?
“Should it be legal? Yes. Do we want it legal? No.” This counterintuitive wisdom on marijuana legalization comes from “Charlie,” a colorful, sixty-something marijuana entrepreneur working out of Boston’s Shawmut. From behind a Pancho Villa-mustache, “Mark,” a colleague with three decades in the business, concurs: “Every time I go over to Hempfest, I chant: ‘Keep Marijuana Illegal!’”
The greater the involvement in the marijuana industry, the greater the apprehension there is toward legalization. This flies in the face of the conventional wisdom of the grass-smoking grassroots. “Legalize It!” goes the ubiquitous mantra at rallies and upon car bumpers. But in Massachusetts, where last November the voters overwhelming opted to decriminalize possession of an ounce or less of marijuana, full legalization stands to drive freelance pot dealers such as Charlie and Mark further underground—and drive the price of the product sky high.
Legalize It? Forgive them, for they know not what they do.
What are stoners smoking that makes them advocate less available, more expensive, and highly bureaucratized marijuana? That’s the question provoked by any sober reading of the various proposals to legalize marijuana.
And marijuana legalization is certainly eliciting a more sober look than it ever has. When President Barack Obama opened-up a town-hall style meeting in March to the Internet, questions about marijuana legalization outnumbered every other topic. His attorney general, Eric Holder, announced in February that federal raids on pot dispensaries in the Golden State would cease under the new administration. Time magazine recently weighed in on the hot topic, asking “Can Marijuana Help Rescue California’s Economy?” and dropping the question mark in a subsequent piece entitled “Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense.”
It makes sense in the way that a conversation about the sound of colors makes sense—when high. Marijuana can’t rescue California’s economy for the obvious reason that it is already an integral part of California’s economy. Making it legal, given the widespread availability of the drug, will do very little to fuel the state’s economic engine. If anything, legalization will further hamstring productivity by hampering an industry with the destructive power of external rules, regulations, and taxation that is currently free from such burdens.
Continues here: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/reefer_madness1/
“Should it be legal? Yes. Do we want it legal? No.” This counterintuitive wisdom on marijuana legalization comes from “Charlie,” a colorful, sixty-something marijuana entrepreneur working out of Boston’s Shawmut. From behind a Pancho Villa-mustache, “Mark,” a colleague with three decades in the business, concurs: “Every time I go over to Hempfest, I chant: ‘Keep Marijuana Illegal!’”
The greater the involvement in the marijuana industry, the greater the apprehension there is toward legalization. This flies in the face of the conventional wisdom of the grass-smoking grassroots. “Legalize It!” goes the ubiquitous mantra at rallies and upon car bumpers. But in Massachusetts, where last November the voters overwhelming opted to decriminalize possession of an ounce or less of marijuana, full legalization stands to drive freelance pot dealers such as Charlie and Mark further underground—and drive the price of the product sky high.
Legalize It? Forgive them, for they know not what they do.
What are stoners smoking that makes them advocate less available, more expensive, and highly bureaucratized marijuana? That’s the question provoked by any sober reading of the various proposals to legalize marijuana.
And marijuana legalization is certainly eliciting a more sober look than it ever has. When President Barack Obama opened-up a town-hall style meeting in March to the Internet, questions about marijuana legalization outnumbered every other topic. His attorney general, Eric Holder, announced in February that federal raids on pot dispensaries in the Golden State would cease under the new administration. Time magazine recently weighed in on the hot topic, asking “Can Marijuana Help Rescue California’s Economy?” and dropping the question mark in a subsequent piece entitled “Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense.”
It makes sense in the way that a conversation about the sound of colors makes sense—when high. Marijuana can’t rescue California’s economy for the obvious reason that it is already an integral part of California’s economy. Making it legal, given the widespread availability of the drug, will do very little to fuel the state’s economic engine. If anything, legalization will further hamstring productivity by hampering an industry with the destructive power of external rules, regulations, and taxation that is currently free from such burdens.
Continues here: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/reefer_madness1/