Economic hope in dope?
Published: 19 May, 2009, 14:01
Edited: 13 April, 2010, 13:11
The United States Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to California’s medical marijuana laws, signaling that federal law will not intervene or make void state laws on its growth, distribution, and use.
The state that pioneered the legalization of marijuana in medicine in 1996 has been fighting a legal battle with the federal authorities ever since.
Under federal law, marijuana is an illegal drug. A lot of people thought that when the states were passing the new laws for medical marijuana use they could be made void.
The decision by the Supreme Court is huge, as they say they are not going to get involved in the way the states are making these laws. Already there are 13 states with medical marijuana laws, and other states will probably now pursue them, knowing that the Federal Government is not going to get in their way.
And also with the new Obama administration, they’ve promised they’re going to stop the raids on marijuana sellers, growers, and users, so this looks like a big day for marijuana advocates.
A pro-pot advocate in Washington, Aaron Houston, who is the Director of Government Relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, said marijuana is America’s largest cash crop. It is bigger than corn and wheat combined with a value of about $36 billion per year; and if marijuana wholesale is legalized, not just for medical purposes, the US would make between $14 and $40 billion from the drug.
“There are 13 US states that have legalized medical marijuana but there are about 100 million Americans using marijuana, and those people want to admit to government’s survey takers that they have used it,” Houston said.
“Clearly, when we have 100 million people saying they used it to government survey takers, it probably would stand to reason. But that number is actually higher because certain people just do not want to tell someone from the government that they have used marijuana, a kind of illegal substance,” he said.
19.05.2009, 13:28
3 comments
Russia-US re-START nuke talksRussia and the U.S. are set to begin talks on a new START treaty to reduce the number of strategic nuclear weapons. A US delegation is in Moscow preparing the ground for President Obama's visit in July. |
19.05.2009, 19:02
Will Israel return the gift of statehood?Following Palestine’s centuries-old rule by the Ottomans and the British, the global community finally conceded Israel its biblical homeland after WWII. Is it time for Israel to return the favor? |
I think that the gov should be discussing way more important topics than pot anyway.this should not even be a discussion at all.There is nothing wrong with pot, u don't hear about some idiot running his car into innocent person walking down the street at night because he just smoked a joint.90% of the time they're drunk from a legal substance they can pick up at any liquor store around the corner.And yes i know it's legal to drink not to drink and drive,but that stops very few people.Kinda the same way weed being illegal stops people from smoking it.To actually have our gov sitting in a room talking about this when so many other pressing issues are at hand is insane.Legalize it and move on so you the gov can get some extra coin in your pocket to waste on things we don't need,and the marijuana users can quit being hassled for burning one.
First of all marijuana is harmless. No one has died from smoking weed. It should be legal because it would bring billions of dollars to the U.S., also because it's better for than liquor and cigarettes. People are crying about a recession, well hello this is the answer duh!
As an added bonus for legalizing, they save money on California wildfires. No more trying to burn all the weed up to cripple growers XD