Medical marijuana is now a $1.7 billion market, according to a report released Wednesday by See Change Strategy, an independent financial analysis firm that specializes in new and unique markets. The figure represents estimated sales of marijuana through dispensaries in states with medical marijuana laws. It is the first time a definitive dollar figure has been given to the emerging medical cannabis industry.
To put that number in perspective, sales of medical marijuana rival annual revenue generated by Viagra, a $1.9 billion business for Pfizer.
A national market for medical marijuana is worth $1.7 billion in 2011 and could reach $8.9 billion in five years.
Two states, California and Colorado, dominate this nascent industry, combining to represent 92% of the wholesale and retail sales across the country. California enjoys the largest market size at $1.3 billion, while Colorado hosts the fastest growing and most business-friendly market.
Nine other states and the District of Columbia with medical marijuana laws have or are forming active markets. Arizona, Michigan and Washington are particularly well-positioned as the industry matures in the next few years.
There are 24.8 million potential patients eligible for medical marijuana under current state laws.
Medical marijuana businesses face significant challenges including unfavorable tax status and downward pricing pressure but can expect high growth driven by rising new patient adoption.
State regulations and federal policy uncertainty are the largest determinants of market activity and investment around the country.
The black market for marijuana has thrived with an annual market size estimated at $18 billion.
From the conclusion of the Executive Summary of this report:
The growing acceptance of medical marijuana is providing business operators and investors with unprecedented opportunities. See Change expect these markets to enjoy 99% growth in the next five years just in existing markets, with more than 20 potential new markets opening. However, investment and business development will continue to be dampened until the federal government definitively changes its position on the legality of medical marijuana.
Demand for marijuana has produced a number of business opportunities. Wholesale marijuana cultivation and retail distribution are the primary business opportunities. Other entrepreneurs are providing marijuana infused products including edibles, tinctures and salves. Development and sales of smoking and non-smoking paraphernalia for consumption are on the rise. Less obvious but significant business opportunities have emerged in ancillary businesses including software development, insurance products, hydroponic equipment, security services, editorial products, advertising and real estate, to name a few. Businesses face significant risk and hurdles. The possession and distribution of marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Many businesses operate with the ever-present risk of being shut down or experiencing a property seizure without notice. Many businesses cannot make standard deductions for business expenses and have difficulty securing standard banking and financial services. The industry suffers from inadequate capital investments, lack of experienced executives and operators, changing local regulations and interactions with illegal marijuana markets.
At about 1/3 the population of California, Ohio should expect legal medical marijuana sales to patients within Ohio to exceed $400 million per year, in the early establishment of the local industry, and expect Ohio sales of MMJ products to exceed $1 billion within three years, as soon as we legalize MMJ in Ohio.
In the mean time, illegal sales of marijuana in Ohio are certainly $ billions per year - most of that marijuana imported from outside Ohio - representing lost revenue opportunity for Ohio - and the cost to Ohio taxpayers for arrest, prosecution and imprisonment of medical marijuana patients, recreational users, and those supporting their supply chain in Ohio is certainly in the $ billions, as well.
The direct and indirect economic benefits to the state of Ohio, in tax revenues from legalizing the medical marijuana industries in Ohio, could easily exceed $1 billion per year... especially if Ohio pursues opportunities to be the brightest greenest state of Earth, and grows medical marijuana and produces medical products from that medical marijuana for the world. That would offer Ohio $10s billions in opportunity, currently not even in our economic pipe dreams.
Time for the leadership of Ohio to have the brightest, greenest dreams for the people and state of Ohio.
Most important to my proposal for Northeast Ohio is building the world's largest and primary medicinal marijuana growing and processing facility on the current Mittal site in the Flats of Cleveland, to create the wealth necessary to correct our environmental injustice here.
We are the only city in America with a combination steel processing facility in the heart of our community and it is killing our citizens and economy - that must go.
An 80+ acre medicinal marijuana growing facility will grow up to $8 billion in product for the United States government and global medical and industrial applications, including for the pharmaceutical and food and beverages industries, which will certainly consume that level of product.
An $8 billion new economy - not including taxes and related incomes of 10,000s of employees - will allow the community to literally buy-out the entire Mittal Cleveland Works operation - at over 1,000 acres of toxic superfund brownfields, I'd estimate the value at under $1 billion - and relocate any useful steelmaking facilities to a place they are safer and more environmentally intelligent to operate - or scrap them - and rededicate the flats to an urban Eden.
With less than 10% of the site being dedicated to greenhouses and related facilities, the community will gain over 1,000 acres of land for smart redevelopment and for public access and use - including opening up and truly remediating much of the Cuyahoga River now polluted by Mittal. Without Mittal, there will be no heavy ship traffic deep up the river, and the river may truly be saved for a better future for the region.
Of course, most important, our proposal eliminates all the harmful air pollution and death Mittal causes, making it safe living around there for the first time since the late 1800s.
Some final thoughts on moving Ohio to the brightest, greenest state, from MSNBC Reporting on this See Change report:
The See Change study says investment and business development will be dampened unless the federal government alters its 74-year prohibition on cannabis and its 41-year war on drugs.
"Frankly, the uncertainty of the regulatory landscape has been a deterrent to attracting investors," Dayton said. "But investors understand uncertainty. They understand risk. But investors demand metrics. This report is a big win for investors."
According to the ArcView Group, there is currently about $1 billion worth of opportunity for ancillary businesses serving retailers. This includes everything from testing labs to insurance companies to software developers.
"We're witnessing the beginnings of a legal business ecosystem around marijuana," Rose, the author of the study, said.
----
Here are our top ten reasons marijuana should be legalized:
10. Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana.
The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for over 75 years and yet: marijuana is now used by over 25 million people annually, cannabis is currently the largest cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the planet. Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are ludicrous and unsupported by the facts, and the idea that marijuana will soon be eliminated from America and the rest of the world is a ridiculous fantasy.
9. Arrests for marijuana possession disproportionately affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce the perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities.
African-Americans account for approximately 13% of the population of the United States and about 13.5% of annual marijuana users, however, blacks also account for 26% of all marijuana arrests. Recent studies have demonstrated that blacks and Hispanics account for the majority of marijuana possession arrests in New York City, primarily for smoking marijuana in public view. Law enforcement has failed to demonstrate that marijuana laws can be enforced fairly without regard to race; far too often minorities are arrested for marijuana use while white/non-Hispanic Americans face a much lower risk of arrest.
8. A regulated, legal market in marijuana would reduce marijuana sales and use among teenagers, as well as reduce their exposure to other drugs in the illegal market.
The illegality of marijuana makes it more valuable than if it were legal, providing opportunities for teenagers to make easy money selling it to their friends. If the excessive profits for marijuana sales were ended through legalization there would be less incentive for teens to sell it to one another. Teenage use of alcohol and tobacco remain serious public health problems even though those drugs are legal for adults, however, the availability of alcohol and tobacco is not made even more widespread by providing kids with economic incentives to sell either one to their friends and peers.
7. Legalized marijuana would reduce the flow of money from the American economy to international criminal gangs.
Marijuana’s illegality makes foreign cultivation and smuggling to the United States extremely profitable, sending billions of dollars overseas in an underground economy while diverting funds from productive economic development.
6. Marijuana’s legalization would simplify the development of hemp as a valuable and diverse agricultural crop in the United States, including its development as a new bio-fuel to reduce carbon emissions.
Canada and European countries have managed to support legal hemp cultivation without legalizing marijuana, but in the United States opposition to legal marijuana remains the biggest obstacle to development of industrial hemp as a valuable agricultural commodity. As US energy policy continues to embrace and promote the development of bio-fuels as an alternative to oil dependency and a way to reduce carbon emissions, it is all the more important to develop industrial hemp as a bio-fuel source – especially since use of hemp stalks as a fuel source will not increase demand and prices for food, such as corn. Legalization of marijuana will greatly simplify the regulatory burden on prospective hemp cultivation in the United States.
5. Prohibition is based on lies and disinformation.
Justification of marijuana’s illegality increasingly requires distortions and selective uses of the scientific record, causing harm to the credibility of teachers, law enforcement officials, and scientists throughout the country. The dangers of marijuana use have been exaggerated for almost a century and the modern scientific record does not support the reefer madness predictions of the past and present. Many claims of marijuana’s danger are based on old 20th century prejudices that originated in a time when science was uncertain how marijuana produced its characteristic effects. Since the cannabinoid receptor system was discovered in the late 1980s these hysterical concerns about marijuana’s dangerousness have not been confirmed with modern research. Everyone agrees that marijuana, or any other drug use such as alcohol or tobacco use, is not for children. Nonetheless, adults have demonstrated over the last several decades that marijuana can be used moderately without harmful impacts to the individual or society.
4. Marijuana is not a lethal drug and is safer than alcohol.
It is established scientific fact that marijuana is not toxic to humans; marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible, and marijuana is not nearly as addictive as alcohol or tobacco. It is unfair and unjust to treat marijuana users more harshly under the law than the users of alcohol or tobacco.
3. Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should instead be taxed to support beneficial government programs.
Law enforcement has more important responsibilities than arresting 750,000 individuals a year for marijuana possession, especially given the additional justice costs of disposing of each of these cases. Marijuana arrests make justice more expensive and less efficient in the United States, wasting jail space, clogging up court systems, and diverting time of police, attorneys, judges, and corrections officials away from violent crime, the sexual abuse of children, and terrorism. Furthermore, taxation of marijuana can provide needed and generous funding of many important criminal justice and social programs.
2. Marijuana use has positive attributes, such as its medical value and use as a recreational drug with relatively mild side effects.
Many people use marijuana because they have made an informed decision that it is good for them, especially Americans suffering from a variety of serious ailments. Marijuana provides relief from pain, nausea, spasticity, and other symptoms for many individuals who have not been treated successfully with conventional medications. Many American adults prefer marijuana to the use of alcohol as a mild and moderate way to relax. Americans use marijuana because they choose to, and one of the reasons for that choice is their personal observation that the drug has a relatively low dependence liability and easy-to-manage side effects. Most marijuana users develop tolerance to many of marijuana’s side effects, and those who do not, choose to stop using the drug. Marijuana use is the result of informed consent in which individuals have decided that the benefits of use outweigh the risks, especially since, for most Americans, the greatest risk of using marijuana is the relatively low risk of arrest.
1. Marijuana users are determined to stand up to the injustice of marijuana probation and accomplish legalization, no matter how long or what it takes to succeed.
Despite the threat of arrests and a variety of other punishments and sanctions marijuana users have persisted in their support for legalization for over a generation. They refuse to give up their long quest for justice because they believe in the fundamental values of American society. Prohibition has failed to silence marijuana users despite its best attempts over the last generation. The issue of marijuana’s legalization is a persistent issue that, like marijuana, will simply not go away. Marijuana will be legalized because marijuana users will continue to fight for it until they succeed.[//]
FALSE: If none of you were smoking weed, none of you would argue for the legalization of weed.
I don't smoke it (or anything) and I think a person has the right to put into their body something like this. No government interferance needed. Not Legalize..........DECRIMINALIZE !! People should have the right to choose, Betty
Marijuana, It's Not Just A Plant - A Documentary By Kain Derrick
Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the US, but its tight borders are bulging with recent marijuana news.
Two bills that would decriminalize marijuana in the Ocean State were introduced in February; House Bill 5031, sponsored by Democratic Rep. John G. Edwards (D-Tiverton), while Senate Bill 270 was sponsored by State Senator Joshua Miller (D-Cranston). These bills would categorize cannabis possession as a civil offense, with first time offenders paying a fine of $150 and repeat offenders having to cough up $300. Currently, those convicted of simple pot possession in Rhode Island face larger fines and potential jail time. Under this new legislation, even those on probation and parole would only be charged with the equivalent of a parking ticket; a pot bust doesn’t become part of one’s criminal record. The two new bills were crafted in response to the innovative Special Senate Panel on Marijuana Prohibition that endorsed decriminalization in 2010.
Neighboring New England state Massachusetts has had a similar law in place since 2008, with simple possession resulting in a $100 fine. The Herald News estimated decriminalization would reduce spending in law enforcement, as well as in the court and prison systems, saving anywhere from $1 to $10 million dollars a year statewide, money that would be a boon to cash-strapped Rhode Island.[//] more at link above.
The problem is, America is NOT a Democracy - it is a Republic! As our Founding Fathers established, can we keep it?
Ever since Appomattox Court House, states have been bullied into believing that their authority is subordinate, and, yes, inferior, to federal law. Big Government lawyers cite the US Constitution, Article. VI. Paragraph. 2. to justify their despotism. It reads, “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
This paragraph of the Constitution has been construed to mean that the federal government may dictate any law to the states and the states have no right to resist. THIS IS NOT TRUE! Notice carefully what the Constitution says: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States WHICH SHALL BE MADE IN PURSUANCE THEREOF . . . shall be the supreme Law of the Land.” (Emphasis added)
This means that any federal law that is NOT "made in Pursuance thereof" or otherwise does not comport with the Constitution is NOT the "supreme Law of the Land." Furthermore, it is the states that are the final authority over what is and is not lawful within their respective borders! This is the clear understanding of America's founders, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who wrote the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, drafted in 1798 and 1799, in response to the egregiously unconstitutional Alien and Sedition Acts.
In the next place, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution plainly states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
And nowhere does the US Constitution assign local and State law enforcement responsibility to the federal government. Nowhere! Meaning: law enforcement is clearly and plainly the responsibility of State and local government--not the federal government! -- more at link above on this---
(oh, the JOBS?? here you go.....) ---snip--
Despite Congress’ labeling marijuana as a dangerous drug without any medical use and with a high potential for abuse, fifteen states in the union (the last I looked) have declared otherwise. So, what insistent force keeps Congress from removing marijuana from CSA’s Schedule 1? Answered by historical comparison, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s reference in 1960 to the military-industrial complex should have included the marijuana-bureaucracy complex created by this “war on marijuana”. As a limited point of illustration, consider the mass raids which took place on March 14, 2011, throughout Montana by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies--spearheaded of course by federal agencies, with the state and local agencies acting as tagalongs.
On March 15, 2011, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) released a written press statement regarding the numerous and simultaneous raids which took place in the great state of Montana--one of the several states which has declared by law that marijuana in fact has medical value and is lawful to use as such. In this statement, the DOJ listed the number of law enforcement agencies involved in the raids. The following is an excerpt from that public statement, indicating at least how many agencies where involved:
“[T]he Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency-Criminal Investigation Division, U.S. Customs and Border Protection-Border Patrol, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. These federal agencies were assisted by the Montana Division of Criminal Investigations, and local High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces, the Northwest Drug Task Force, the Kalispell Police Department, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, the Missoula Police Department, the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, the Missoula High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, the Great Falls Police Department, the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office, the Central Montana Drug Task Force, the Billings Police Department, the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office, the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, the Dillon Police Department, the Beaverhead County Sheriff’s Office, the Park County Sheriff’s Office, the Bozeman Police Department, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, the Missouri River Drug Task Force, the Helena Police Department, the Lewis & Clark Sheriff’s Office, and the Eastern Montana Drug Task Force-Miles City” (U.S. Department of Justice, Michael W. Cotter, United States Attorney, District of Montana, News Advisory, March 15, 2011).
Did you get all that?! It would take some people shorter time to read a chapter in the Bible than it would to read this list of agencies supposedly pursuing “criminal enterprises that have violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) related to marijuana.” Ibid.
So, how many government agents were involved within those departments who were paid in that pursuance? How many government staff members or private contractors were involved to assist those investigations? How many high-dollar pieces of equipment and surveillance were paid for and used in those investigations? How many clerks will be needed to keep the public record files? How many pieces of paper will be printed? How many prosecutors will be paid to prosecute and judges paid to adjudicate these man-made crimes? How many public defenders will be needed to defend them? How many jail personnel are employed to make sure these “criminals” reside in jail? How many food dispensaries are paid to deliver food to these same inmates? How many fees and fines are collected from the defendants and paid to the various governments as mandated by statute? How many drug rehabilitation programs are funded by tax dollars to “treat” these “drug addicts”? How many lobbyists are paid to use such statistics to show why more taxes are needed to sustain these criminal-pursuing operations? How many tax dollars were and will be used to pay for every person and everything involved, directly or indirectly, in this “war”? The numbers would undoubtedly rise into the billions. Can anyone say job security or economic stimulation?
Thank you for such wonderful news pieces about marijana, Norm and Betty. What a watse of our money paying people to try to stop people from growing it. I didnt know any thing about this until my eyes started to go bad and my I have one son, well he doesn't always listen to me, but this is one time when he did know something and he had me try, it has opened my eyes!
People always make judgements thinking it is a dirty drug, but I know people who are a lot more dirty with drinking.
Thank you for your informative information, God bless!
Regional Economics Action Links North East Ohio
Printer-friendly version
thats how the government is growing wealthy off Of marijuana biz
http://hightimes.com/legal/ht_admin/1842
----
Here are our top ten reasons marijuana should be legalized:
10. Prohibition has failed to control the use and domestic production of marijuana.
The government has tried to use criminal penalties to prevent marijuana use for over 75 years and yet: marijuana is now used by over 25 million people annually, cannabis is currently the largest cash crop in the United States, and marijuana is grown all over the planet. Claims that marijuana prohibition is a successful policy are ludicrous and unsupported by the facts, and the idea that marijuana will soon be eliminated from America and the rest of the world is a ridiculous fantasy.
9. Arrests for marijuana possession disproportionately affect blacks and Hispanics and reinforce the perception that law enforcement is biased and prejudiced against minorities.
African-Americans account for approximately 13% of the population of the United States and about 13.5% of annual marijuana users, however, blacks also account for 26% of all marijuana arrests. Recent studies have demonstrated that blacks and Hispanics account for the majority of marijuana possession arrests in New York City, primarily for smoking marijuana in public view. Law enforcement has failed to demonstrate that marijuana laws can be enforced fairly without regard to race; far too often minorities are arrested for marijuana use while white/non-Hispanic Americans face a much lower risk of arrest.
8. A regulated, legal market in marijuana would reduce marijuana sales and use among teenagers, as well as reduce their exposure to other drugs in the illegal market.
The illegality of marijuana makes it more valuable than if it were legal, providing opportunities for teenagers to make easy money selling it to their friends. If the excessive profits for marijuana sales were ended through legalization there would be less incentive for teens to sell it to one another. Teenage use of alcohol and tobacco remain serious public health problems even though those drugs are legal for adults, however, the availability of alcohol and tobacco is not made even more widespread by providing kids with economic incentives to sell either one to their friends and peers.
7. Legalized marijuana would reduce the flow of money from the American economy to international criminal gangs.
Marijuana’s illegality makes foreign cultivation and smuggling to the United States extremely profitable, sending billions of dollars overseas in an underground economy while diverting funds from productive economic development.
6. Marijuana’s legalization would simplify the development of hemp as a valuable and diverse agricultural crop in the United States, including its development as a new bio-fuel to reduce carbon emissions.
Canada and European countries have managed to support legal hemp cultivation without legalizing marijuana, but in the United States opposition to legal marijuana remains the biggest obstacle to development of industrial hemp as a valuable agricultural commodity. As US energy policy continues to embrace and promote the development of bio-fuels as an alternative to oil dependency and a way to reduce carbon emissions, it is all the more important to develop industrial hemp as a bio-fuel source – especially since use of hemp stalks as a fuel source will not increase demand and prices for food, such as corn. Legalization of marijuana will greatly simplify the regulatory burden on prospective hemp cultivation in the United States.
5. Prohibition is based on lies and disinformation.
Justification of marijuana’s illegality increasingly requires distortions and selective uses of the scientific record, causing harm to the credibility of teachers, law enforcement officials, and scientists throughout the country. The dangers of marijuana use have been exaggerated for almost a century and the modern scientific record does not support the reefer madness predictions of the past and present. Many claims of marijuana’s danger are based on old 20th century prejudices that originated in a time when science was uncertain how marijuana produced its characteristic effects. Since the cannabinoid receptor system was discovered in the late 1980s these hysterical concerns about marijuana’s dangerousness have not been confirmed with modern research. Everyone agrees that marijuana, or any other drug use such as alcohol or tobacco use, is not for children. Nonetheless, adults have demonstrated over the last several decades that marijuana can be used moderately without harmful impacts to the individual or society.
4. Marijuana is not a lethal drug and is safer than alcohol.
It is established scientific fact that marijuana is not toxic to humans; marijuana overdoses are nearly impossible, and marijuana is not nearly as addictive as alcohol or tobacco. It is unfair and unjust to treat marijuana users more harshly under the law than the users of alcohol or tobacco.
3. Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should instead be taxed to support beneficial government programs.
Law enforcement has more important responsibilities than arresting 750,000 individuals a year for marijuana possession, especially given the additional justice costs of disposing of each of these cases. Marijuana arrests make justice more expensive and less efficient in the United States, wasting jail space, clogging up court systems, and diverting time of police, attorneys, judges, and corrections officials away from violent crime, the sexual abuse of children, and terrorism. Furthermore, taxation of marijuana can provide needed and generous funding of many important criminal justice and social programs.
2. Marijuana use has positive attributes, such as its medical value and use as a recreational drug with relatively mild side effects.
Many people use marijuana because they have made an informed decision that it is good for them, especially Americans suffering from a variety of serious ailments. Marijuana provides relief from pain, nausea, spasticity, and other symptoms for many individuals who have not been treated successfully with conventional medications. Many American adults prefer marijuana to the use of alcohol as a mild and moderate way to relax. Americans use marijuana because they choose to, and one of the reasons for that choice is their personal observation that the drug has a relatively low dependence liability and easy-to-manage side effects. Most marijuana users develop tolerance to many of marijuana’s side effects, and those who do not, choose to stop using the drug. Marijuana use is the result of informed consent in which individuals have decided that the benefits of use outweigh the risks, especially since, for most Americans, the greatest risk of using marijuana is the relatively low risk of arrest.
1. Marijuana users are determined to stand up to the injustice of marijuana probation and accomplish legalization, no matter how long or what it takes to succeed.
Despite the threat of arrests and a variety of other punishments and sanctions marijuana users have persisted in their support for legalization for over a generation. They refuse to give up their long quest for justice because they believe in the fundamental values of American society. Prohibition has failed to silence marijuana users despite its best attempts over the last generation. The issue of marijuana’s legalization is a persistent issue that, like marijuana, will simply not go away. Marijuana will be legalized because marijuana users will continue to fight for it until they succeed.[//]
FALSE: If none of you were smoking weed, none of you would argue for the legalization of weed.
I don't smoke it (or anything) and I think a person has the right to put into their body something like this. No government interferance needed. Not Legalize..........DECRIMINALIZE !! People should have the right to choose, Betty
Marijuana, It's Not Just A Plant - A Documentary By Kain Derrick
PS> Watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueK-zqbZmh4 title above and
Watch Rick Simpson: Run from the Cure ----- /watch?v=dPTnqXxcUJg
Proof THC kills cancer ---- /watch?v=YIO1rux0MdY
http://hightimes.com/news/mmiller/7028
--snip--
Rhode Island may be the smallest state in the US, but its tight borders are bulging with recent marijuana news.
Two bills that would decriminalize marijuana in the Ocean State were introduced in February; House Bill 5031, sponsored by Democratic Rep. John G. Edwards (D-Tiverton), while Senate Bill 270 was sponsored by State Senator Joshua Miller (D-Cranston). These bills would categorize cannabis possession as a civil offense, with first time offenders paying a fine of $150 and repeat offenders having to cough up $300. Currently, those convicted of simple pot possession in Rhode Island face larger fines and potential jail time. Under this new legislation, even those on probation and parole would only be charged with the equivalent of a parking ticket; a pot bust doesn’t become part of one’s criminal record. The two new bills were crafted in response to the innovative Special Senate Panel on Marijuana Prohibition that endorsed decriminalization in 2010.
Neighboring New England state Massachusetts has had a similar law in place since 2008, with simple possession resulting in a $100 fine. The Herald News estimated decriminalization would reduce spending in law enforcement, as well as in the court and prison systems, saving anywhere from $1 to $10 million dollars a year statewide, money that would be a boon to cash-strapped Rhode Island.[//] more at link above.
The problem is, America is NOT a Democracy - it is a Republic! As our Founding Fathers established, can we keep it?
how many governmental jobs are there due to the "war on drugs'?
http://newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin641.htm
(but first, a history lesson) snip----
Ever since Appomattox Court House, states have been bullied into believing that their authority is subordinate, and, yes, inferior, to federal law. Big Government lawyers cite the US Constitution, Article. VI. Paragraph. 2. to justify their despotism. It reads, “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
This paragraph of the Constitution has been construed to mean that the federal government may dictate any law to the states and the states have no right to resist. THIS IS NOT TRUE! Notice carefully what the Constitution says: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States WHICH SHALL BE MADE IN PURSUANCE THEREOF . . . shall be the supreme Law of the Land.” (Emphasis added)
This means that any federal law that is NOT "made in Pursuance thereof" or otherwise does not comport with the Constitution is NOT the "supreme Law of the Land." Furthermore, it is the states that are the final authority over what is and is not lawful within their respective borders! This is the clear understanding of America's founders, including Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who wrote the Kentucky and Virginia resolutions, drafted in 1798 and 1799, in response to the egregiously unconstitutional Alien and Sedition Acts.
In the next place, the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution plainly states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
And nowhere does the US Constitution assign local and State law enforcement responsibility to the federal government. Nowhere! Meaning: law enforcement is clearly and plainly the responsibility of State and local government--not the federal government! -- more at link above on this---
(oh, the JOBS?? here you go.....) ---snip--
Despite Congress’ labeling marijuana as a dangerous drug without any medical use and with a high potential for abuse, fifteen states in the union (the last I looked) have declared otherwise. So, what insistent force keeps Congress from removing marijuana from CSA’s Schedule 1? Answered by historical comparison, Dwight D. Eisenhower’s reference in 1960 to the military-industrial complex should have included the marijuana-bureaucracy complex created by this “war on marijuana”. As a limited point of illustration, consider the mass raids which took place on March 14, 2011, throughout Montana by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies--spearheaded of course by federal agencies, with the state and local agencies acting as tagalongs.
On March 15, 2011, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) released a written press statement regarding the numerous and simultaneous raids which took place in the great state of Montana--one of the several states which has declared by law that marijuana in fact has medical value and is lawful to use as such. In this statement, the DOJ listed the number of law enforcement agencies involved in the raids. The following is an excerpt from that public statement, indicating at least how many agencies where involved:
“[T]he Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency-Criminal Investigation Division, U.S. Customs and Border Protection-Border Patrol, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. These federal agencies were assisted by the Montana Division of Criminal Investigations, and local High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task forces, the Northwest Drug Task Force, the Kalispell Police Department, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office, the Missoula Police Department, the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, the Missoula High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, the Great Falls Police Department, the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office, the Central Montana Drug Task Force, the Billings Police Department, the Yellowstone County Sheriff’s Office, the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, the Dillon Police Department, the Beaverhead County Sheriff’s Office, the Park County Sheriff’s Office, the Bozeman Police Department, the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, the Missouri River Drug Task Force, the Helena Police Department, the Lewis & Clark Sheriff’s Office, and the Eastern Montana Drug Task Force-Miles City” (U.S. Department of Justice, Michael W. Cotter, United States Attorney, District of Montana, News Advisory, March 15, 2011).
Did you get all that?! It would take some people shorter time to read a chapter in the Bible than it would to read this list of agencies supposedly pursuing “criminal enterprises that have violated the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) related to marijuana.” Ibid.
So, how many government agents were involved within those departments who were paid in that pursuance? How many government staff members or private contractors were involved to assist those investigations? How many high-dollar pieces of equipment and surveillance were paid for and used in those investigations? How many clerks will be needed to keep the public record files? How many pieces of paper will be printed? How many prosecutors will be paid to prosecute and judges paid to adjudicate these man-made crimes? How many public defenders will be needed to defend them? How many jail personnel are employed to make sure these “criminals” reside in jail? How many food dispensaries are paid to deliver food to these same inmates? How many fees and fines are collected from the defendants and paid to the various governments as mandated by statute? How many drug rehabilitation programs are funded by tax dollars to “treat” these “drug addicts”? How many lobbyists are paid to use such statistics to show why more taxes are needed to sustain these criminal-pursuing operations? How many tax dollars were and will be used to pay for every person and everything involved, directly or indirectly, in this “war”? The numbers would undoubtedly rise into the billions. Can anyone say job security or economic stimulation?
[//]
balance of a very interesting pc at http://newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin641.htm
For all the wrong reasons is gov in this 'war on drugs' It is called revenue farming of the People, and jobs for them :( Betty
The problem is, America is NOT a Democracy - it is a Republic! As our Founding Fathers established, can we keep it?
marijana can save us
Thank you for such wonderful news pieces about marijana, Norm and Betty. What a watse of our money paying people to try to stop people from growing it. I didnt know any thing about this until my eyes started to go bad and my I have one son, well he doesn't always listen to me, but this is one time when he did know something and he had me try, it has opened my eyes!
People always make judgements thinking it is a dirty drug, but I know people who are a lot more dirty with drinking.
Thank you for your informative information, God bless!