Comments on: Reduce the Black Market

By: Andrew Blanco

Andrew Blanco — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:05:12 +0000

The drug cartel chaos on the US-Mexican border is creating the perfect storm for drug law reforms. Debates have already begun on the floor of the Senate. Check this article out. I wouldn't be surprised if Obama tackles this one while he's still riding high with power and popularity.

By: Weedvolution : Stabilizing the Economy and Marijuana Facts

Weedvolution : Stabilizing the Economy and Marijuana Facts — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:34:12 +0000

[...] marijuana would inject into the economy roughly $10 billion in tax revenue alone, estimates show that sales would earn in the tens of billions. According to [...]

By: WeedSmoker

WeedSmoker — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:40:10 +0000

It’s time to make it legal. The government can decide who gets to grown it. The tax revenue alone would bail us out of this mess our Country is in now thanks to the past 8 years and a War that was never justified. How did George W. Bush ever get into office in the first place? Cheating in Florida. Smoking Pot is not as bad as going to War and killing people without just cause. Our soldiers that are not dying over there are coming home and living a hell that you don’t read about in the news, they don’t publish it but yet it is very real.

If Marijuana where legal the only people really out of a job here would be the illegals that are bringing in the crappy pot from Mexico, then maybe they’d go home and stop sucking up all the assistance our Government has to offer, as well as the crimes commetted then they flee back to Mexico. The quality of the Marijuana would improve as well as people could smoke it with less chance of smoking chemical that people add to make produce a better high.

Somebody please put this before Congress. We have no real choice here in a President in the 2008 Election. I don’t believe the lies of either party. I think McCain is too old (age 72) and I think Obama is really not black, I wish he really was but he is not. It would be great if just anyone could run because they’d beat those two Bozos’.

By: Legalizing Drugs To Benefit The Economy? | Master Your Card

Legalizing Drugs To Benefit The Economy? | Master Your Card — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:17:32 +0000

[...] Legalizing marijuana would inject roughly $10 billion in tax revenue into the economy. That money could be used in other areas like improving education [...]

By: carlos

carlos — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:59:30 +0000

An on an aside. Hemp pulp makes a great paper, one that lasts for centuries. Wood paper is more costly and not as long-lasting or so I’ve been told.
During the 30’s when the anti-Hemp establishment got around to demonizing hemp it was more than coincidence that the Hearst chain of papers was one of the biggest demonizers. The Hearst corporation reputedly owned extensive lumber and forest holdings at the time and Hearst’s lumber pulp could _not compete_ with less expensive and higher quality hemp paper. So he joined the federal crusade in outlawing his inexpensive _competitor_.
It wasn’t a “drug war” at first, at least nor for the Hearst nationwide chain. It was just plain greed. So much for laissez-fair and free enterprise…

By: carlos

carlos — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:48:21 +0000

Jason,

Thanks. Bottom line: anti-drug laws function as an _excuse_ to keep a full-time and lethally armed law enforcement establishment ready to _tame_ us at a moments notice. At their disposal: water cannons to “non-lethal” tazers to asbestos walls to round up innocent demonstrators as happened during the GOP convention in New York and as happened in the trade talks in Miami (almost hushed by the national media). Demonized drug users/dealers and petty criminals are just “practice.”
It’s not as bad as envisioned by Hollywood in the “Soylent Green” food riots. But…

By: Jason Morgan

Jason Morgan — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:21:28 +0000

Right there with you, Carlos. All good points.

By: carlos

carlos — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:02:59 +0000

Please, folks, let’s review some American history and economics.
Prohibition coincide with the end of WW1. It also coincided with the triumph of the Banker’s Revolution, otherwise known as the law that established the Federal Reserve (the Fed).
The Fed tells the Congress how to control inflation, recessions, depressions, unemployment, etc.
Congress passes laws and borrows money from the Fed accordingly, based on our good credit: The Federal Income tax. If you don’t help pay off _that_ “loan,” like Al Capone, you end up in federal prison.
When there is unemployment people are unhappy and can get pretty desperate. Some turn to booze, others to pot & drugs for solace. Others get mean and turn to crime and just plain violence.
Social engineering remedies?
Alcohol and drug laws become an excuse to hire _half_ of those “potentially violent” poor to arrest, and if needed, kill the _other half of the poor_.
All at taxpayers expense. Thus, the righteous _but deputized_ “poor” can legally arrest those who use booze and drugs and incarcerate/warehouse them (it also cuts down on unemployment statistics. Clever, huh?).
Those individuals who _manifest_ “social unhappiness” due to _engineered_ economic conditions–over which they have/had little say–are given “time out,” in prisons, bought and paid for at taxpayer expense.
We “need” a power establishment in place. It provides _employment_ for “power-worshippers” (SEE: George Orwell, “Raffles and Miss Blandish”) at taxpayer expense. And if it requires the demonization of a class of users, so be it.
“Drug enforcement” is just an excuse to prevent a bigger socio-economic problem from blowing up in banker’s faces.
All profit, as some have written, Big Pharma, Big Insurance and all who thrive on the “fear” of crime.
WE have been disempowered by the banking establishment who set the _value_ (buying power) of our saviungs, our retirement and of our hourly wages.
Sorry about that Marxist analysis. But, what do you think is happening on Wall Street right now? And why the FED at taxpayer expense bailed out the “credit-making” establishment?

By: American since 1783

American since 1783 — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:29:32 +0000

This is very well articulated. Unfortunately the average American is an idiot who thinks marijuana, crack and LSD are all the same. Legalization and hence taxation of marijuana would indeed help our nation, but it would harm those who profit by making war on this plant. Politicians don’t want to support the legalization of marijuana because the lobbyists who wine and dine them are supported by the pharmaceutical companies who have their own agenda i.e high priced chemical products.

By: Andrew Blanco

Andrew Blanco — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:26:29 +0000

@Hugh, All good points. What particularly concerns me is the rise of Meth. Here are some articles documenting its unprecedented spread around the world, and not just in poor areas... Flavored Meth Drug of Choice Among the US Workforce Meth & The EU