News Hour: Medical Marijuana & The Drug War in California

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 09:36 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amDNs3qiSq0   Posted on YouTube: October 16, 2007 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: October 16, 2007 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 1129

 
October 15, 2007 - PBS NEWS HOUR

[NoGodsNoMasters]

1. This makes me SOOO mad!!!

This is fucking REDICULOUS!!! Cigarettes kill two jumbo jet loads of Americans EVERY DAY. Alcohol, both through poisoning and alcohol related accidents kills thousands every year, moreover both are EXTREMELY addictive. Alcohol can make people violent, it destroys the liver when indulged in mass quantities, people lose they're jobs because of it, and homeless people will go without food just to buy one more drink. I almost forgot it can also cause psychosis in the form of DT's. Marijuana never triggers violence, psychosis, is not physically addictive, nobody goes homeless because they "need" it, and even FEDERAL studies have said there is NO CONCLUSIVE LINK between cannabis ingestion and cancer. Even if there was, there is no philosophically sound reason why alcohol and cigarettes would be available on every streetcorner yet marijuana remains prohibited. More than that, Marijuana, as it says in the video, is in the same category as HEROIN!!! WTF?!!! Obviously, the DEA's efforts aren't working, and having it illegal just bolsters the criminal element, we could TAX it if it were legal and actually MAKE money on it. The sentences for it are also draconian and excessive, most people in prison for marijuana are there for mere POSESSION, not distribution. Pedophiles and killers get out early because we need to make room for potheads it's INSANE! This is a racist, immoral, and illogical law that should be changed immediately. Moreover, and this is just a pet theory, I suspect that one of the reasons the government is so adament about this law is because marijuana smokers are predominantly left-of-center (the republicans have cocaine and whiskey) this allows them to invalidate left-progressive citizens either by incarceration, or knocking them off the voter rolls because they're technically felons. NORML is sponsoring a nationwide day of protests of these draconian laws very soon please look up you're local chapter and participate, WE have the power.

[rAVES]

2. yea but its easily grown at home so hard to tax

[Bennyboy]

3. Let's do a little math...shall we?

CA Pop 36,457,575

15% of pop puffs=5,468,632.35 marijuana smokers)

1/8 ounce consumption rate= 672,641 ounces week

52 weeks=34,977,372 ounces per year

2,186,085.75 pounds consumed in CA per year.

2,186,085.75 Number of plants needed to supply the stae of CA in marijuana (1 lb a plant)

Grower rate $1,000 per pound= $4,372,171,505

100% mark-up at "retail" level $4,372,171,505

Total revenue $8,744,343,010

All illegal. All untaxed. 8 billion dollars at the very minimum.

And I figure my figures are low on % of population and consumption rate. And a pound a plant is probably on the high side due to constraints due to discovery and indoor growing constraints.

[Bennyboy]

4. If POT were legal.....

I really see it becoming much like the wine industry. Different parts of the state would become known as por producing regions. As every grower would be growing using their own methods, growing different strains, there would be so much diversity in the product. Every pot producer would be known for their own brand, much like Gallo is know for the grapes differently as Mondavi is.

Billions of dollars are spent in Napa and other CA wine producing regions. Could you imagine what legalization would do to counties with poor economies? Humboldt for example. The tourism trade would boom there. The money that is now underground would become above ground. And generate even more revenue.

[NoGodsNoMasters]

5. Good thinking.

With outsourcing and companies going global the agricultural and manufacturing areas in the south and midwest have been hit really hard. Primarily we need to move this country more towards a Keynesian economic policy, in the interim, however, this could, as you were saying, be a big shot in the arm for these counties that are suffering as a result. Even if it is tough to tax, most people will probably be too lazy to grow themselves (It's not that easy.) and won't be able to compete with the more high-grade strains, produced with mating peticular plants, producing different strains, and hydroponics that most people don't have the time, resources, or inclination to mess around with. Even if a lot of people grow themselves, it's still a trickle of federal revenue coming in, instead of a deluge going out. BTW: I got my dates wrong on that Nationwide Legalization Protest, it's on May 3rd, I got it confused with something else. Incidentally, it's my birthday, mobilizing enough political force to decriminalize or legalize would be the best birthday present I ever got, please participate, or write you're congressman/woman. Again, Saturday, May 3rd, there is something going on in every major city, wherever you live, theres' something going on, you can look up whats' happening in you're area on the internet.

[Bennyboy]

6. It is not easy to grow.......

IT is a science just like every crop is. I ahve been a grower, mostly a private crop, and I studied it, made it my own. You don't jsut plants seeds and let them grow.

Thanks for the heads up on the may 3rd date....