Marijuana legalization movement seen growing like a weed in 2016

The marijuana legalization movement is expected to pick up steam in 2016.
Forbes contributor Debra Borchardt says 2016 will be a “big year” for legal marijuana.
“2015 was a pretty amazing year for progress in the legalization of marijuana. Four states and the District of Columbia legalized recreational marijuana, many states decriminalized it and several more states approved medical marijuana. But for all the advances made in 2015, the year was just a run up to 2016, when the presidential election is expected to be accompanied by a ramp up in legalization,” she said.
Fortune predicted last month that six more states will legalization weed in 2016.
“Initiatives to land marijuana legalization on 2016 ballots are well underway in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Nevada, while a handful of other states could also put legalization to a vote,” Fortune.com writer Tom Huddleston Jr. wrote.
They hope to join Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, Washington state and D.C., which have already legalized marijuana.
Leafly, an online cannabis information resource, said Nevada is almost a sure bet to legalize weed this year. It also said the odds favor legalization in California and Maine because of their strong medical marijuana programs.
Based on T-shirts and knick-knacks I saw for sale in Las Vegas earlier this month, I’d say businesses there are generally in favor of legalizing cannabis. And hotels like the Excalibur are making sure non-smoking rooms also prohibit pot smoking.

Photos from gift shop and non-smoking hotel room at the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in January. (Photos by Patrick Seitz)

14 fun this-or-that quizzes from CollegeHumor

In April, I spotlighted 13 fun this-or-that online quizzes. This-or-that quizzes are Internet memes that compare information from two wildly different subjects that could be confused.
Lately, CollegeHumor has become the king of this kind of online fun.
What follows are 14 this-or-that quizzes from CollegeHumor.

Zapf Dingbats font character or One Direction member’s tattoo?

This quiz compares nonsensical tattoos on One Direction boys to crazy font characters from Zapf Dingbats.

Game of Thrones scene or Creed music video?

This quiz compares scenes from Creed music videos to scenes from HBO’s “Game of Thrones.”

Town in Wales or fantasy castle?

This quiz compares the names of towns in Wales to those of fantasy castles.

NFL player or Key & Peele character?

Can you tell the difference between actual NFL Players and fake names from the Key & Peele “East-West Bowl” sketch?

Weed strain or Dubstep DJ?

Can you correctly identify which of these names are marijuana strains and which are Dubstep DJs?

Justin Bieber tweet or kindergarten classroom poster?

This quiz compares Justin Bieber’s tweeted aphorisms with the simplistic sayings on kindergarten classroom posters.

Startup, bar, or indie band?

Think you can tell the difference between a New York City startup company’s name, a bar in Portland, and an indie band? Just try.

Gap ad or stock photo?

Which of these dead-eyed monsters are attempting to sell reasonably priced wardrobe staples?

Cocktail or sex move?

This quiz compares the names of cocktails with sex moves.

Obscure poison or Chicken McNugget ingredient?

Can you guess which chemical is an ingredient in a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget and which is an extremely harmful poison?

Pokemon city or Crayola color?

Can you tell which of these you can buy more Repel in and which are colors in your crayon box?

Obscure Star Wars character or U.N. representative?

This quiz compares the goofy names of Star Wars characters with the names of United Nations representatives.

Failed NBC sitcom or reality star’s book?

This quiz compares failed NBC sitcoms with books written by reality TV stars.

Cocktail or wrestling move?

Here’s a bonus video that you can play along with.

Investing in marijuana industry still extremely speculative

With four states having legalized marijuana and more considering it, investors might be thinking pot is the next big thing. But marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, so Wall Street and big business are taking a hands off approach to the potential cash crop.
The website MarijuanaStocks.com lists 38 cannabis-related stocks. Nearly all of them are penny stocks, which are prone to market manipulation and bankruptcy. Three tickers on its list of Marijuana Stock Quotes are trading at less than a penny a share.
Marijuana Business Daily offers a list of 11 marijuana stocks. Same story: a bunch of crappy penny stocks that no one should touch with a 10-foot pole.
These sorry lists of public companies with ties to the cannabis trade don’t inspire much confidence in the industry.
Mark A.R. Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of California at Los Angeles, told Bloomberg that he’s skeptical about prospects for the recreational marijuana industry.
“I just don’t see how there’s money to be made producing an agricultural commodity,” he said. “Once this is a competitive market, prices will be driven down to the level of costs. Costs for cannabis are very small, if it’s produced legally.”
One “real” company connected with the marijuana business is GW Pharmaceuticals. It develops cannaboids for the treatment of cancer pain, multiple sclerosis spasticity and epilepsy. (See article at Investors.com.) It has a real business with a differentiated product offering.
You can’t say the same for the other guys.

Marijuana lifestyle starts getting mainstream media coverage

With the political winds changing, the mainstream media has shifted its coverage of marijuana from law enforcement and the War on Drugs to the marijuana lifestyle and business.
After Colorado legalized marijuana in 2012, the Denver Post started a marijuana section. The website currently features advertisements for Sticky Buds, a Denver pot dispensary; and a cannabis conference called Indo Expo, which has the motto “Where green is the new gold.”
In Washington state, which also legalized pot in 2012, the Seattle Times has a blog called The Evergreen.
NBC News has an online news page called Legal Pot.
The Huffington Post has a section called Huff Post Marijuana.
CNN has announced plans to do a series on the business of marijuana called “High Profits.” The show will launch in 2015 and cover the “moguls of marijuana,” EW reported.
Libertarian magazine Reason has done extensive coverage of the marijuana legalization debate. Its writing on the subject is top notch.
Of course, these are good times for niche publications focused on marijuana, including High Times, Cannabis News, Marijuana.com, Weedist and Ganjapreneur.

Photo: Complimentary bag of Doritos handed out by the Seattle Police Department at Seattle Hempfest in August. (Photo by Cannabis Culture.)

Humorous marijuana legalization artwork

The marijuana legalization movement has been aided by social media. People have used Facebook, Twitter and other online services to spread messages about the benefits of legalized pot. Often those messages come with humorous artwork.
What follows are some examples of those pieces of art.
CollegeHumor introduced Bubbles the Sloth as a marijuana mascot in its feature “If Drugs Had Mascots.”

DeviantArt user Ryan, aka Stareatthesun2, showed what a pack of Marlboro brand marijuana cigarettes would look like.

He also posted an ad for pot in the vein of Absolut vodka.

One Photoshop artist showed what a commercial marijuana business could look like by altering a McDonald’s restaurant sign.

One organization posted an informational poster showing that top-flight athletes Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt are marijuana users.

Earlier this week, I wrote that President Barack Obama should take the lead to legalize marijuana on the federal level. One artist altered an Obama Hope campaign poster to say “Yes We Can(nabis).”

A series of old-fashion style marijuana promotion posters have funny phrases like “Marijuana: Proud supporters of the snack food industry!”

And finally here’s how one anti-drug campaign was an epic fail.

President Obama should push for legalizing marijuana

With successful ballot measures in last week’s midterm elections, the number of states that have legalized marijuana doubled to four.
Alaska and Oregon joined Colorado and Washington state, which legalized pot in 2012. Voters in the District of Columbia also legalized marijuana last week, but only for possession, home cultivation and sharing, not commercial production or distribution.
In 2016, marijuana legalization is expected to be on the ballot in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana and Nevada.
The legalization of marijuana is an admission that the decades-long War on Drugs was a costly mistake, much like the prohibition of alcoholic beverages.
But the federal government still considers marijuana a controlled substance. That fact is preventing banks, Wall Street and big businesses like tobacco companies from getting involved in the potentially lucrative market.
President Barack Obama, a lame-duck politician who has admitted to smoking pot in his youth, should use what little political capital he has left to push for legalizing marijuana at the federal level.
Obama is a hypocrite for using marijuana when he was young but standing by as law enforcement continues to crack down on the drug. His administration has bullied legal medical marijuana businesses and strong-armed banks into rejecting legal marijuana money.
The tide is turning though. The general public is recognizing that marijuana has legitimate medical uses and is at least as safe as alcohol. They also see the harmful impact that criminalizing the weed has had on society.
After all, it’s doubtful Obama would ever have become president if he had been caught in possession of marijuana as a youth. Many thousands of men and women have had their records stained by criminal prosecution for the drug.

Photo: Stylized depictions of famous marijuana users including Barack Obama. The artwork, called “Celebrity Weedists,” was created by Michael Weinfeld for the Weedist.

Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez figure in 2013 celebrity predictions

Hollywood watchers are predicting that Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” will win Best Picture at this year’s Oscars. But “Zero Dark Thirty” could pull an upset win, GoldDerby says.
Here are some more entertainment, pop culture and miscellaneous predictions for 2013.

Molly Chance, a writer at entertainment blog Zap2It, makes a bunch of interesting predictions:

• Anne Hathaway will win an Oscar for “Les Miserables,” and then go back to making terrible movies.
• “World War Z” will be a critical and box-office disappointment when audiences become fatigued by dystopias and explosions.
• Selena Gomez will dump the Biebs (Justin Bieber) for good.
• Someone in (boy band) One Direction will date someone else in One Direction.

Emily Hewett, showbiz reporter for U.K.’s Metro, weighs in with her predictions for the new year:

• Rihanna and Chris Brown tie the knot in Las Vegas.
• Harry Styles (of One Direction) goes solo.
• Taylor Swift dumps Harry Styles and writes a song about his cougar fantasies.
• K-Stew and R-Patz skulk off for secret wedding. (That’s Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson for the uninitiated.) 

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Mark Rogowsky makes some Hollywood predictions, too:

• “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” will be the box-office hit of the year, edging out “Iron Man 3” and “Man of Steel.”
• “The Great Gatsby” will be a box-office bust.
• The Lone Ranger” will do decent numbers, but not enough to overcome its prodigious budget. 

InStyle U.K. predicts the break-out stars of 2013:

• British actress Holliday Grainger. Having acted in period dramas “Anna Karenina” and “Jane Eyre,” she’s set to star as Estella in “Great Expectations,” due out next Christmas. 
• Actress Alice Englert, who is starring in “Beautiful Creatures,” which is touted as the next “Twilight.” InStyle U.K. calls her “the next Kristin Stewart.” 
• Actor Sam Claflin, who last appeared in “Snow White and the Huntsman,” will play Finnick Odair in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.” 
• Actress AnnaSophia Robb, cast as the young Carrie Bradshaw in the “Sex and the City” prequel TV series, “The Carrie Diaries.” 
• Music artists: The Staves, Disclosure, Angel Haze and Alt J. 

Super Bowl predictions: 

Bleacher Report writer Matt Schreiber thinks the New England Patriots will defeat the Green Bay Packers to win Super Bowl XLVII on Feb. 3 in New Orleans.
“I just feel that Tom Brady has at least one more Super Bowl victory in him,” Schreiber says. “This will be an epic match-up and a shootout if it does indeed turn out this way. Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez will likely be healthy at this point. When that’s the case, the Patriots are nearly impossible to stop.”

Nick Dimengo, a featured columnist for the Bleacher Report, sees the Denver Broncos defeating the Packers in the Super Bowl.
“Peyton Manning has reestablished himself as the best quarterback in the NFL,” Dimengo says. “After a season where he’s led Denver to a mile-long winning streak (OK, just 10 games), while proving to be balanced on both offense and defense, we bet fans will be tapping the Rockies to celebrate the franchise’s first Super Bowl since the Elway days.”

Sports and other predictions: 

Dimengo makes a bunch of bold sports predictions for the year.

• Phil Jackson returns to coaching. With 10 NBA coaching titles so far, Jackson will get restless for more. He’s likely to return to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. 
• Notre Dame upsets Alabama in college football’s BCS National Championship Game.
• Indiana defeats Michigan in the NCAA basketball championship.
• Golfer Tiger Woods wins the Masters Tournament. 
• San Francisco Giants repeat as Major League Baseball World Series champs. 

The USA Today sports staff chimes in with its sports predictions for the year ahead:

• The NCAA announces that a future Final Four will be held at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
• Tiger Woods wins the Masters. 
• Tennis star Serena Williams adds two majors, upping her career total to 17, one short of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert. 
• Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant wins his first NBA MVP award. 

Bruce Krasting, a former hedge fund manager, makes some sports predictions and other prognostications in an article for Business Insider:

• Tiger Woods will win a major. Rory McIlroy will not have a good season due to new equipment. Jason Dufner will win the FedEx Cup. 
• Denver will beat Green Bay in the Super Bowl. 
• In the NBA, the Miami Heat will lose to Oklahoma. 
• In baseball, the California Angels will face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first-ever “All L.A.” World Series. The Angels will go on to win, but no one outside of SoCal will care, so the TV audience will be the lowest in years. 
• Several states will ban the sale of high energy drinks after more evidence the drinks can cause health problems.
• The Chevy Volt and the Tesla will not sell well. 
• The Mars rover will find carbon. 
• Apple will spend a fair bit of 2013 below $500, but will end the year close to $600. 
• Facebook will not trade above $31. This busted IPO will continue to be a drag on other tech IPOs. 

Thomas Frey, an editor at The Futurist magazine, sees the legalized marijuana movement continuing.

“As Napa Valley is to the wine industry, Colorado and Washington will be to the emerging marijuana industry,” he said. “While many will take a wait-and-see approach to how the industry develops, major fortunes will be won and lost starting with the early players in 2013.”

Photo: Rihanna from GQ. 

2012 election featured big Libertarian victories on issues

The major party candidates for U.S. president this year, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney, offered no attractive option for Libertarian-minded voters. The race was a better-of-two-evils choice, at best.
If you are liberal on social issues, but conservative on fiscal and government scope issues, a vote for either Obama or Romney represented a painful compromise of principles.
That is likely why Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson attracted nearly 1.2 million votes nationwide, the most ever for the party. Johnson, a former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico, got 1% of the votes in the presidential race. He ran on a traditional Libertarian platform of dramatically smaller federal government. (See UPI article and Libertarian Party press release.)
On the state front, several measures supported by Libertarians won voter approval on Tuesday.
Voters in Maine, Maryland and Washington state became the first in the country to approve same-sex marriage, ending a 32-state losing streak. The vote was closest in Washington, NBC News said. Legislatures in six other states – Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Iowa, Vermont, New York and Connecticut – and the District of Columbia have approved gay marriage laws, Yahoo News reported.
Voters in Washington state and Colorado voted “yes” on measures that would legalize the sale of pot to adults, without the need for a doctor’s prescription, USA Today and Huffington Post reported. And voters in Massachusetts overwhelmingly approved a measure to allow the use of medical marijuana.
Libertarians believe in minimal government involvement in people’s personal lives.

Photos: Graphic from Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, posted to his Twitter account on Thursday; and marijuana plants. 

Marijuana legalization inevitable

The tide has turned relative to America’s views on marijuana.
The mainstream public is starting to realize that legalizing pot isn’t going to unravel the fabric of our society.
People are coming around to the idea that resources wasted trying to combat the sale of marijuana would be better spent somewhere else.
Opinion pieces in major newspapers and websites are coming out in favor of legalizing pot and treating it like alcohol. Marijuana can be taxed and provide a source of revenue for state and local governments, just as beer and wine sales do today.
On Nov. 2, California voters will vote on Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana for adults over 21.

“Even though police made more than 850,000 marijuana arrests last year, a recent government report shows youth marijuana use increased by about 9%,” Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, wrote in a CNN opinion piece.

“Controlling and regulating marijuana will mean jobs and revenue that the state currently cedes to criminal cartels and the black market,” Tony Newman and Stephen Gutwillig wrote in an opinion article for the Sacramento Bee.

“The California Beer and Beverage Distributors is financing the campaign against the (pot) legalization initiative,” David Sirota wrote on Slate.

“A (poll in California) in July found that 47% of registered voters had tried marijuana at least once and that 50% favor some form of legalization,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

“The California government projected that at an excise tax of $50 per ounce (of pot), the new law would bring in about $1.4 billion in revenues for the state,” according to ABC News.

“For decades, illegal marijuana cultivation has been an economic lifeblood for three counties in northern California known as the Emerald Triangle … But high times are changing. Legal pot, under the guise of the California’s medical marijuana laws, has spurred a rush of new competition. As a result, the wholesale price of pot grown in these areas is plunging,” according to NPR.

If the California measure passes, “prisons would have more room to house society’s worst criminals, particularly violent sex offenders,” Michael Stetz wrote in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

“When will we learn that prohibition doesn't banish a popular product? It merely turns the trade over to thugs. The result is worse for society than if drugs were legal,” commentator John Stossel wrote.

“We’ve been throwing billions upon billions of dollars and hundreds of law enforcement and military lives at the drug problem for decades. At what point to do we take a breath and rethink our strategy?” MacKenzie Allen, a retired law enforcement officer, wrote in the Tacoma, Wash., News Tribune.

Also, here are the five biggest marijuana myths debunked, according to Coed Magazine.

George Soros wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal titled: "Why I Support Legal Marijuana."

Nov. 3, 2010, update: California voters rejected a ballot measure that would have made their state the first in the union to legalize the personal use and possession of marijuana. (Washington Post)

Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll infographics

Infographics are big – literally and figuratively – on the Web these days.
Digital artists have embraced the idea of designing large graphics that contain tons of information in charts and tables. These are pretty graphics that you need to scroll down and sometimes sideways to read.
A great place to find fun infographics is OnlineSchools.org. You can see several examples of their work below.
In keeping with the headline of this article, here is a set of infographics about sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll:

Porn vs. the Economy (Visual.ly)

The Striptease (Infographicality)

Coming Clean about Infidelity (Infographic List)

The Scoop on Semen (CafeMom)

Illegal Drugs in the Americas (Next Generation Pharmaceutical)

The Music Industry and Online Piracy by the Numbers (Deviant Art)

The iPod Revolution (Mashable)

Art: Online Schools logo

Lots of smoke: Marijuana in the news

Talk about marijuana legalization – or at least decriminalization – lit up the Internet this week.

Cook County goes to pot

Illinois’ Cook County Board approved a measure July 21 to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana. The measure allows sheriff’s police to issue a $200 ticket for possessing 10 grams or less of marijuana in unincorporated parts of the county, which includes Chicago. Previously offenders were arrested on misdemeanor possession charges, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Thirteen states, including California and New York, have passed some form of decriminalization of marijuana, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Supporters of marijuana decriminalization say pot cases clog the jails and courts and are a waste of law enforcement and judicial resources.

Suggested reading:
A former police chief opines on HuffPost that marijuana should be legalized.

California sprouts 'green rush' from marijuana

A July 18 Associated Press article says the medical marijuana industry has become big business in California.
Marijuana is easily available in the state and not just for cancer and AIDS sufferers. You can get weed if you have seasonal allergies, insomnia or just about any ailment, the AP reports.
Marijuana has become “an economic force” for the state. “No longer relegated to the underground, pot in California these days props up local economies, mints millionaires and feeds a thriving industry of startups designed to grow, market and distribute the drug,” the AP says.
That includes farms and stores for selling pot and equipment for growing it. Also springing up are pot clubs and for-profit clinics with doctors who specialize in medical marijuana recommendations. All of these are legal, tax-paying businesses.
Some lawmakers are considering broader legalization as a way to shore up the state’s finances. “The state’s top tax collector estimates that taxing pot like liquor could bring in more than $1.3 billion annually,” the AP writes.
“Los Angeles County alone has more than 400 pot dispensaries and delivery services, nearly twice as many outlets as Amsterdam, the Netherlands capital whose coffee shops have for decades been synonymous with free-market marijuana,” according to the AP.

Finding marijuana with your iPhone

Apple on Monday approved an application for its iPhone called “Cannabis,” which lets users find the nearest legal supplier of medicinal marijuana.
The “Cannabis” app, which was developed by AJNAG, has gotten some pretty poor user reviews unfortunately. Bummer, man.

Photo: Screenshot from the iPhone “Cannabis” app.

Obama says no to legalizing pot

President Barack Obama, a savvy politician, played it safe when asked about legalizing marijuana Thursday. He said he was against it, at least when it comes to helping the U.S. economy.
Legalizing marijuana is one of those third rails in American politics. Like Social Security reform, most politicians stay clear of it. It’s never seriously discussed. Even the topic of medical marijuana for cancer patients and others is a tough one to raise. Decriminalizing pot? Forget about it.
Meanwhile, the endless war on drugs continues to waste taxpayer money. Drug lords are getting rich and using violence and government corruption to get their product to market.
During an online townhall meeting Thursday, Obama said the question of legalizing marijuana was a favorite among people who submitted questions to the White House for the event.
Reuters covered the event:

“I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation,” he said to laughter at the White House event.
“And I don’t know what this says about the online audience,” Obama said, tongue-in-cheek. “This was a fairly popular question. We want to make sure that it was
answered.”
“The answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy,” he said before moving back to a more sober discussion of unemployment and healthcare reform.

Obama was wrong to dismiss the idea as if it were a joke. He ran for president saying he planned to correct the failed policies of the past. He can start with the “war on drugs.” And the first step is not to dismiss an idea that’s apparently popular with a sizable audience.

For the record, I should state that I don't smoke marijuana or patronize prostitutes, even though I've advocated for their legalization here. I just believe that people should make their own moral choices on those things.

Phelps probe reaches obvious conclusion

It took the Richland County, S.C., Sheriff’s Department nearly two weeks to reach the same conclusion most rational people would make in two seconds: There was no way to charge Olympic swimming champ Michael Phelps with marijuana possession or use based on a photo.
Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said Monday that there was not enough evidence to prosecute those at the party where the photo was reportedly taken, according to Reuters.
Well, duh. Even Barney Fife (pictured above) would have reached the same conclusion – only sooner.

Subway sticks with Phelps, doesn't want to offend customers with the munchies

Give the Subway sandwich chain some credit. They’re sticking with Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps as a sponsor, even after a photo surfaced of him smoking pot from a bong.
Subway probably doesn’t want to tick off its marijuana-smoking customers who get the munchies.
The blogosphere has been cracking wise about this latest development in golden boy Phelps’ fall from grace.
One wag suggested that Subway offer a sandwich for $4.20 after the marijuana culture term 420. (See Wikipedia entry on 420 for background.)
Another thought White Castle would be a better endorsement deal for the swimmer and proposed that he star in “Harold, Kumar and Michael Phelps Go to White Castle.”
And so on and so on.
Breakfast cereal giant Kellogg dropped its endorsement deal with Phelps because of the controversy. But most of his major sponsors, including Visa, Speedo, luxury Swiss watchmaker Omega and sports beverage PureSport’s maker Human Performance Labs, have stood by the athlete, according to news reports.

Some police departments have too much time on their hands

A lot of stories have been written about the photo of Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps smoking a bong at a November party at the University of South Carolina.
Enough already.
He fessed up and apologized. He called the behavior "regrettable," "inappropriate" and said it showed "bad judgment."
Now the Richland County, S.C., sheriff’s department is investigating the case to see if charges can be brought against Phelps.
Seriously? I can’t believe they’d waste their time investigating what is likely a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge.
Talk about demonstrating bad judgment. What’s going to be their evidence? A photo that could have been taken who knows where and who knows when. Maybe some eyewitness statements, if they’re lucky. Any hard evidence has gone up in smoke.
Doesn’t Richland County have any real criminals – murderers, rapists, pedophiles, burglars, thieves, robbers, scam artists and the like to track down? If not, I’d suggest that the department is overstaffed based on the crime rate and needs to be downsized.
The taxpayers in Richland County should be upset that the sheriff’s department is wasting resources on a nothing crime.
The time might be right to decriminalize marijuana. After all, we now have a president in Barack Obama who admits trying marijuana (and cocaine) in his teenage years. The so-called drug war has lasted decades and doesn’t have much to show for it, except overcrowded prisons.
If the government legalized marijuana, it could reap billions in taxes to help rebuild the country’s infrastructure. Tax dollars spent on law enforcement efforts to stop the cultivation and trafficking of marijuana could go to health care, including helping those people with addiction problems.
Legalizing marijuana should be seriously investigated and considered. But it would take some brave politicians to bring it up.