marijuana

By Kyle Cheney http://www.bostonherald.com

A regulated, taxed marijuana trade could help bolster the state’s economy, advocates for legal marijuana said today at a Revenue Committee hearing.

"Whether you like it or you hate it ... it is undeniable in 2009 that marijuana has become inextricably embedded in our culture," said Richard Evans, a Northampton attorney. "It is ubiquitous and it is ineradicable."

Evans urged the committee to "put on your green eye shades and give close scrutiny to marijuana prohibition." He asserted that the revenue the state could reap from a legalized marijuana industry could be comparable to the effect of introducing casinos, although he offered no supporting data. Read more »

Zero Hedge
Submitted by Carolyn Austin of Wall St. Cheat Sheet

California made the news again this week with an effort by marijuana advocates to put three measures on the ballot that legalize small quantities of marijuana for personal use.

Currently, thirteen states allow medicinal marijuana use, including California. This recent effort represents the first step toward full legalization and a stance that States are serious about asserting jurisdiction over the issue.

Proponents of legalization, such as the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), point to studies that show the economic benefits of legalizing marijuana — the largest cash crop in the US — could be substantial.

Recently, over 500 economists sent an open letter to the President, Congress, and state legislatures, citing a report by Professor Jeffrey A. Miron, The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition. Read more »

Decriminalizing drugs can boost corporate profits and state tax revenues

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Mexican drug lord "El Chapo" made the Forbes list of billionaires earlier this year. No, you can't make this stuff up: He runs the Sinaloa cartel, a major supplier of cocaine to the United States. He's an assassin, another bin Laden ... and Forbes honors him right up there with the world billionaires.

But that got me thinking: In legitimizing "El Chapo" isn't Forbes edging us toward decriminalizing all illegal drugs? Farfetched? Or maybe signaling a fundamental shift in America's attitude toward illegal drugs?

Suppose I were back at Morgan Stanley, asked to write a securities report for America's health-care industry, on Big Pharma? Review competition, market share, new profit opportunities when decriminalization of marijuana expands to other illegal drugs like cocaine and heroin, a megabuck market. Read more »

The war on drugs is possibly the biggest, most prolonged, and most unnoticed waste of money in our federal budget.

By Andrew Hitti

The United States has a habit of starting unnecessary wars. No, I am not talking about Iraq, you can keep reading. What I am talking about is the war on drugs, possibly the biggest, most prolonged, and most unnoticed waste of money in our federal budget. There are many government agencies devoted to the drug war. The most obvious of these is the Drug Enforcement Administration, but there are also lesser known agencies like the Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Read more »

BY JUSTIN SUGG

Our esteemed Editorial Board — of which I am a member — advocated medical marijuana’s legalization on Oct. 9. In an interview with Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, he talked with passion about the need to legalize medical marijuana but hesitated to support recreational use. He said Iowa was not ready to legalize recreational marijuana, and the Editorial Board agreed.

I agree Iowa should legalize medical marijuana, but only because everyone should be able to use it.

That’s not to say I believe marijuana has limited medicinal benefits. In fact, I have very personal reasons to advocate medical marijuana use. My mother suffers from glaucoma and has terrible headaches from the pressure. Many times she goes without sleep from the pain and takes large doses of ibuprofen to little avail. She hesitates (rightly so) to take stronger medication because of adverse effects. Marijuana is known to reduce glaucoma pressure and could effectively treat my mother’s ailments. Read more »

An Orange County Register reader poll has 83 percent in favor of legalizing marijuana and 17 percent against.
By DEEPA BHARATH

More than 80 percent of the respondents to an ocregister.com poll on the issue of legalizing marijuana in California voted in favor.

The poll was in response to a Register story on three state initiatives that propose to legalize marijuana.

As of this morning, 1,520 readers had responded to the poll, which asked: Would you support an initiative to legalize marijuana in California? So far, 83 percent responded yes, with 17 percent saying no.

One of the initiatives is the California Cannabis Hemp and Health Initiative, which would make use of all cannabis hemp legal for industrial, nutritional, medicinal, religious and recreational purposes.

The other is the California Cannabis Initiative, which would make marijuana legal for medicinal and recreational purposes. Read more »

On the one hand, marijuana is practically legal—more mainstream, accessorized, and taken for granted than ever before. On the other, kids are getting busted in the city in record numbers. Guess which kids.

By Mark Jacobson
Published Sep 13, 2009 Read more »

Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get as many as three pot-legalisation measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over US drug policy.

At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of more than 38 million the first in the nation to legalise marijuana.

Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the US government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face of a massive government-sanctioned pot industry. Read more »

By National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

Without a doubt the question I’m most often asked professionally is this: “Why is marijuana still illegal?”

The common inference behind this question is that there must be some behind the scenes cabal of Big Pharma, Tobacco, and Alcohol executives conspiring to keep cannabis illegal. By contrast, the real culprits behind pot prohibition are far more overt.
Read more »

U.S. Marijuana Growers Cutting Into Profits of Mexican Traffickers

By Steve Fainaru and William Booth
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

ARCATA, Calif. -- Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico.

Illicit pot production in the United States has been increasing steadily for decades. But recent changes in state laws that allow the use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes are giving U.S. growers a competitive advantage, challenging the traditional dominance of the Mexican traffickers, who once made brands such as Acapulco Gold the standard for quality. Read more »