Marijuana bills tempt cash-starved states.

[Bill Cravener]

29 US States consider changing marijuana laws. :U

"The more people talk about marijuana laws the more people come to the conclusion that they've completely failed, so we're definitely optimistic here," said Aaron Smith, California policy director for the Marijuana Policy Project.

http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=474500

Never imagined seeing this in my life time.

[anunitu]

About time, even though I myself don't indulge, I can see no reason to keep it against the law. I seldom drink also, and have no reason to want everybody to have to follow my example. Live and let live is my motto.

[Bill Cravener]

Read this piece from November 21, 2007.

Previous data released last year by the Bureau of Justice Statistics indicates that 12.7 percent of state inmates and 12.4 percent of federal inmates incarcerated for drug violations are serving time for marijuana offenses.

The report speculates that decriminalizing illicit drugs, along with enacting modest reforms in sentencing and parole, would save taxpayers an estimated $20 billion per year and reduce the prison population from 1.5 million to below 700,000.

http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7434

[sinsi]

Can you imagine the outcry when the government reaps more from marijuana tax than tobacco tax  :bg
When they realise how many people use it?

The downside is that they would make more money from a tax than they are with fines, because the price would be much higher.
The price here hasn't changed since 1983.

>Never imagined seeing this in my life time.
Hang in there, old timer  :bdg


(I reserve the right to edit this post so as to un-incriminate myself.)

[jj2007]

There would be (almost) no organised crime if drugs were not illegal but rather heavily taxed, like alcohol and tobacco. Finding the right rate of taxation is not so easy, though:
- If taxes are too low, people consume too many drugs (alcohol, pot, coca, whatever...), with consequent health problems.
- If taxes are too high, the mafia will open the illegal market, and organised crime will thrive again.

Prohibition, i.e. no taxes, is definitely the best recipe for getting full jails and rich bosses. So it's good news that some have learned late lessons stemming from the times of Al Capone...

[Bill Cravener]

Pot is called biggest cash crop grown in the US.

The $35-billion market value of U.S.-grown cannabis tops that of such heartland staples as corn and hay, a marijuana activist says.

Not sure how much to believe in the "marijuana activist says" part. Depends on how high he was at the time. :bg

http://articles.latimes.com/2006/dec/18/local/me-pot18

[dedndave]

it's kind of too late
local governments here in the US have already spent vast sums of money arming themselves to fight "the war on drugs"
hell - our sheriff (joe arpaio) has a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on an armored personel carrier
not even allowed to use that weapon for anti-personel, according to the Geneva Convention
but, our sheriff has one, ready to go - a million bucks down the tube
that is only one small example
local police are oufitted better than the troops we send to Iraq

edit
i see there is another sheriff in SC that has the same thing

http://reason.com/blog/2008/09/01/sheriff-lotts-new-toy



as i said, these guys have the best gear in the world

[Bill Cravener]

There would be (almost) no organised crime if drugs were not illegal but rather heavily taxed, like alcohol and tobacco.

It would stop a good bit of the crazy killing that goes on down there along the US and Mexican border I'd bet you.

[sinsi]

>these guys have the best gear in the world
:lol

[Farabi]

Based on some research conducted by our government, there is no fatal case about marijuana overdoses and there is no report if marijuana is addivtive, unlike alcohol. Alcohol is highly addictive and make the user very aggresive. On some science paper marijuana extract can cure tumor (dont know what it is called on your country). But some research also mentioned that sucking marijuana can cause cancer, just like tobbacco, but tobacco is more dangerous.

But still, people here dont want to legalize it, so it still illegal here.

The research on indonesian language
www.himatansi.org%2Fpdf-news116-26-juni%2C-hari-anti-narkoba-sedunia.html&h=cfbe4fe375b827b3e99df60910ab9345

[Farabi]

it's kind of too late
local governments here in the US have already spent vast sums of money arming themselves to fight "the war on drugs"
hell - our sheriff (joe arpaio) has a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on an armored personel carrier
not even allowed to use that weapon for anti-personel, according to the Geneva Convention
but, our sheriff has one, ready to go - a million bucks down the tube
that is only one small example
local police are oufitted better than the troops we send to Iraq

edit
i see there is another sheriff in SC that has the same thing

http://reason.com/blog/2008/09/01/sheriff-lotts-new-toy



as i said, these guys have the best gear in the world

Oh, craps. They armed.

[oex]

OMG :lol it's like one of those Robocop adverts, I thought it was a joke

[Gunner]

our sheriff (joe arpaio) has a 50 caliber machine gun mounted on an armored personel carrier
not even allowed to use that weapon for anti-personel, according to the Geneva Convention
but, our sheriff has one, ready to go - a million bucks down the tube
that is only one small example
local police are oufitted better than the troops we send to Iraq

That is a terrible waste of money for civilian law-enforcement!!!!  OOOOH scare people and not being able to shoot em.  That IS a great weapon though, I was a 0331 (Machine Gunner) in the Marines and that was one of my weapons....  Reach out an destroy you more than a mile away.  The armor piercing incendiary rounds were fun  :bg  Go clear through a building and start a fire.....  As for the Geneva Convention (Piece of crap that enemies don't follow and allow the good guys to die) saying you can't shoot a person with the 50 (ya gotta see what this round does to a body), you don't shoot the "person" you shoot at his gear  :toothy

[dedndave]

lol Rob
they were much more fun at night with every forth round a tracer
smoke a little weed and make your own light show   :bg

[MichaelW]

The problem with that weapon is when there are people around that you don't want to shoot and all they have to hide behind are vehicles, buildings, brick walls, steel plates, etc.