Sunday November 22nd, 2009
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“Thank You for Pot Smoking”
Posted by Abigail Lewis on May 14, 2009 - 2:26pm.
In the state of California, voters made medical marijuana legal back in 1996. There are at least 11 other states in which medical marijuana prescribed by a doctor is also legal, and several more where it has been decriminalized. Yet up until quite recently, someone buying pot in these states with a prescription in hand could still get into trouble with the federal government. And med mar growers and sellers have been under a shadow for years, with no guarantee of state protection.In northern California's Mendocino County, where an estimated 70 percent of the population grows weed, it's been a particularly prickly issue. People who are genuinely ill and would like to have their medicine as pure as possible have no way of knowing whether or not their pot is truly organic. Since the federal law prohibits growing at all, the local organic certification process is stymied. How can they certify something the US government has declared totally illegal?
The laws in Mendocino state that up to 25 plants can be grown on one legal parcel, and yet the Mendocino county sheriff's website clearly states that federal laws supercede local laws. Recently, however, despite the assurance of attorney general Eric Holder that the federal government will not interfere in states where it is legal, local deputies have taken it upon themselves to bust a series of small-time farmers, mostly families supporting themselves with their crops.
Now California's governor has suggested legalizing and taxing marijuana, as we do with alcohol, to help reduce the state deficit. According to NPR, California already makes more than $100 million a year from taxes paid by medical marijuana facilities. Just imagine the cha-ching if anyone could buy it.
Legalizing marijuana seems like the smart thing to do, if only to get the bulk of the trade out of the hands of organized crime. Would more people smoke if it were legal? Maybe. But Prohibition never stopped people from drinking, and anyone who really wants to get stoned can generally find a way to do it already, federal laws notwithstanding.
Photo by Jason White
To have medical marijuana one NEEDS a state issued document AND a doctor's note to use it legally.
If you want to make it legal, make it a pill. that's another issue but it does not carry the stigma of " smoking pot"
You want to legalize it, just imagine the new commercials for kids products, sponsored buy, brought to you by, schools, etc.
Marijuana has always been a precursor to other illicit drugs, all for the magical chase of the first high, key word FIRST, it will never happen again until the ultimate high... death.
The day one sees growing fields of marijuana being cared for and harvested by big companies, they don't do it 'cause they know it's illegal, is when it will be accepted.
The day a state can supercede the federal government is the day they declare their own independance from the USA. How many states are willing to do that. So we are bound by federal law, state law, county law and municipal laws, in that order. I for one applaude the Mendecino County Sheriff Department for DOING their job.