I have a simple plan that will do all of the above as well as free up law enforcement and shrink prison populations, reduce the incidence of Alzheimer’s, cut America’s dependence on alcohol as well as its incidence of the resultant liver and kidney problems.
Let us do what Walter Cronkite, Rick Steves, Congressman/Dr. Ron Paul, state legislator Tom Ammiano, Senator Bernie Sanders, the presidents of the Organization of American States, and the majority of Americans have told us we should do.
Legalize marijuana.
The way it is now, our economy depends in part on the viability of our tobacco industry. The industry includes 10,000 farms, thousands of farm related workers with factories producing 264 billion cigarettes for sale in our country and abroad each year. Cigarettes, unfortunately, cause cancer, emphysema, premature aging, and aggravate a number of other health-related problems like heart disease and stroke. We can’t keep producing health hazards and yet we can’t close down an entire industry. How can they continue to operate and make profit while producing something much less harmful? For many it may actually be therapeutic.
Legalize marijuana and have the tobacco industry convert to the marijuana industry. The companies would be licensed under strict guidelines ensuring the highest quality product in as pure a form as possible. This product would yield profits for the companies and employment for the workers as well as taxes for the government, potentially far exceeding revenues from tobacco taxes which are eaten up by resultant health care costs and lawsuits.
Without the production of cigarettes, people currently addicted would have to finally quit. Many currently suffering the pains of illnesses will get some relief by smoking marijuana. People using alcohol to transcend their unfortunate circumstances only to be more depressed by them can turn to marijuana which has very few health risks associated with moderate use. Marijuana is now being used to fight the opioid addiction that is affecting people of all walks of life.
Marijuana will help the old as well as the young. The older citizens will not only get relief from their pains and improve their appetite, but they will have a different dimension in which to dwell when not busy with daily activities. They will enjoy the intrinsic joys of life and not miss some of the practical limitations of their advanced years. Elders who have been smoking this precious herb for years will have much less of a chance of developing Alzheimer’s, according to recent findings.
Law enforcement officers on the federal, state and local levels now spending their time finding marijuana farms and arresting distributors, sales representatives and consumers would be freed up to pursue serious criminals. Prison populations would be reduced if marijuana-related arrests, which target low income minority members disproportionately, ended. Alcohol-related crimes might also decrease with more people choosing marijuana as their new drug of choice.
With marijuana legal, drug dealers here and south of the border would go bankrupt. Without riches from illegal marijuana sales, the drug cartels will have less power to control their communities and tempt others into lives of crime.
If you think that the abundant list of reasons for legalizing marijuana cited above is all-inclusive, I would urge you to think again. There is a much more important reason than all of the above combined - it will change our culture for the better.
As I have already mentioned in previous columns, we Americans have gotten too busy. We are constantly rushing, talking on our cell phones, playing phone tag with friends who are as busy as we are and are unable to connect. We have been fooled into believing that more is better and that there can never be enough. There is a saying “you can’t be too rich or too thin.” Of course you can and you can be too busy too.
Recent studies have found that people who partake for a period of time lose some of their extrinsic motivation. They are less dependent on money, status, power or prized possessions as sources of happiness. They become more intrinsically motivated.
We need to stop rushing around and learn to fully appreciate the paradise that surrounds us. We don’t have to constantly be trying to prove ourselves. According to informed sources, marijuana is the greatest teacher of living life in the moment and enjoying what you are doing, no matter whether it’s called “work” or “play.”
With marijuana you don’t need a big Hummer or pickup truck to feel like a man. With marijuana you don’t need four-inch spike heels and a pushup bra to prove that you are a woman. You don’t need wealth or fame to be successful. With marijuana you realize that you are consciousness and are interconnected with everything and everyone else. You’ve got a friend inside and outside you.
Or, at least, so I’ve been told.
So, in this November’s election, please do the right thing: vote “yes” on 64 to legalize marijuana in California!
Let us do what Walter Cronkite, Rick Steves, Congressman/Dr. Ron Paul, state legislator Tom Ammiano, Senator Bernie Sanders, the presidents of the Organization of American States, and the majority of Americans have told us we should do.
Legalize marijuana.
The way it is now, our economy depends in part on the viability of our tobacco industry. The industry includes 10,000 farms, thousands of farm related workers with factories producing 264 billion cigarettes for sale in our country and abroad each year. Cigarettes, unfortunately, cause cancer, emphysema, premature aging, and aggravate a number of other health-related problems like heart disease and stroke. We can’t keep producing health hazards and yet we can’t close down an entire industry. How can they continue to operate and make profit while producing something much less harmful? For many it may actually be therapeutic.
Legalize marijuana and have the tobacco industry convert to the marijuana industry. The companies would be licensed under strict guidelines ensuring the highest quality product in as pure a form as possible. This product would yield profits for the companies and employment for the workers as well as taxes for the government, potentially far exceeding revenues from tobacco taxes which are eaten up by resultant health care costs and lawsuits.
Without the production of cigarettes, people currently addicted would have to finally quit. Many currently suffering the pains of illnesses will get some relief by smoking marijuana. People using alcohol to transcend their unfortunate circumstances only to be more depressed by them can turn to marijuana which has very few health risks associated with moderate use. Marijuana is now being used to fight the opioid addiction that is affecting people of all walks of life.
Marijuana will help the old as well as the young. The older citizens will not only get relief from their pains and improve their appetite, but they will have a different dimension in which to dwell when not busy with daily activities. They will enjoy the intrinsic joys of life and not miss some of the practical limitations of their advanced years. Elders who have been smoking this precious herb for years will have much less of a chance of developing Alzheimer’s, according to recent findings.
Law enforcement officers on the federal, state and local levels now spending their time finding marijuana farms and arresting distributors, sales representatives and consumers would be freed up to pursue serious criminals. Prison populations would be reduced if marijuana-related arrests, which target low income minority members disproportionately, ended. Alcohol-related crimes might also decrease with more people choosing marijuana as their new drug of choice.
With marijuana legal, drug dealers here and south of the border would go bankrupt. Without riches from illegal marijuana sales, the drug cartels will have less power to control their communities and tempt others into lives of crime.
If you think that the abundant list of reasons for legalizing marijuana cited above is all-inclusive, I would urge you to think again. There is a much more important reason than all of the above combined - it will change our culture for the better.
As I have already mentioned in previous columns, we Americans have gotten too busy. We are constantly rushing, talking on our cell phones, playing phone tag with friends who are as busy as we are and are unable to connect. We have been fooled into believing that more is better and that there can never be enough. There is a saying “you can’t be too rich or too thin.” Of course you can and you can be too busy too.
Recent studies have found that people who partake for a period of time lose some of their extrinsic motivation. They are less dependent on money, status, power or prized possessions as sources of happiness. They become more intrinsically motivated.
We need to stop rushing around and learn to fully appreciate the paradise that surrounds us. We don’t have to constantly be trying to prove ourselves. According to informed sources, marijuana is the greatest teacher of living life in the moment and enjoying what you are doing, no matter whether it’s called “work” or “play.”
With marijuana you don’t need a big Hummer or pickup truck to feel like a man. With marijuana you don’t need four-inch spike heels and a pushup bra to prove that you are a woman. You don’t need wealth or fame to be successful. With marijuana you realize that you are consciousness and are interconnected with everything and everyone else. You’ve got a friend inside and outside you.
Or, at least, so I’ve been told.
So, in this November’s election, please do the right thing: vote “yes” on 64 to legalize marijuana in California!
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