Economy saved by decriminalising drugs!

What you guys need is a whole pile of money from nothing, and you get that by growing marijuana and all other drugs people can grow themselves.

We all know the demand is huge, and there's a lot of taxes that can be gained by doing so, Try it for a year or two, putting all money raised into paying off your debts and you can kiss your deficit goodbye forever.

All those police can do real police work (catching crims), less crime.

All those courts freed up.

All those 'normal' people not being turned into criminals.

All that money saved from not locking them up.

All the money raised in taxing the stuff.

New businesses opening instead of closing.

All that money saved from the now unneccessary D.E.A.!

How easy dropping the deficit could be if only we didn't have conservatives.

 

Yep just ignore the garganturan health care cost and dramatic drop in productivity an nation of junkies is what will make a nation great.

I mean that how Jamaica does it

 

Mate, a great percentage of people use illegal drugs now.

The drop in productivity occurs when a user gets dragged off to jail and can't turn up at work. Just a thought.

 

You are ignoring the effect of higher price for drugs on the economy. As you might know, Marijuana grow is very popular in BC, Canada. About 7-8 years ago I looked at the numbers about it ( After seeing how many high end cars, the drug dealers were buying) and according to government statistics, the BC biggest legal export was soft wood which equaled 2 billion dollar while Marijuana export was 6 billion dollars. Can you imagine if Marijuana becomes legal and that amount of cash is withdrawn from one province economy?

 

It won't be withdrawn as the people will still want their drugs. The crooks will still do their illegal dealings (exports) if they have to i'm sure. Yes they may go up for those that don't grow it themselves. The money currently earnt by illegal drugs they say is going underground and financing more criminal activities. By decriminalising recreational use, the money would now be above ground and become part of a thriving economy. Most drug users would prefer to buy from a shop than some seedy dealer i'm sure.

 

Yep stoners are very productive Warren Buffet is a stoner , Bill Gates is a stoner , Bill Clinton is a stoner , Vladimir Putin is a stoner , Albert Einstein is a stoner , NASA is full of stoners . Yep clear examples that drugs help people be more productive .

You know what you convinced me from now own I'll have all my programmers show up to work drunk . I can't wait to see my next month profits

 

It seems Washington finally understands it can make money out of cannabis instead of wasting millions on a useless war turning decent folks into criminals.

Source: Washington's marijuana law prompts high level federal meetings

 

Obama's justice department has been engaged in terror style tactics against medical marijuana dispensaries for years. In some ways, he has been more ambitious than Bush in enforcing marijuana laws. It will be interesting to see if he puts the brakes on for Washington State. Unlike California, Washington State could be alienated by Obama's federal power grab.

FYI, we have federal laws on the books (DOMA) making same sex marriage illegal. Obama has decided not to enforce those laws, yet he aggressively pursues and prosecutes marijuana offenders. One of the many ways in which our president is a self serving liar and a hypocrite. More testament to the fact we are no longer a nation of laws, but rather a nation with a dictator/king.

 

I think it's more the agencies vying to keep themselves sustainable. From what I hear Obama's a pothead.

 

So the implication is that Obama has no control over his own justice department? As bad as that would be, it is simply not the case. Obama has used Eric Holder's justice department as more of a political weapon than a law enforcement organization. There would be no smash and grab tactics on medical marijuana dispensaries in California without Obama's knowledge and approval.

 

This is one of Obama's biggest failures especially since he said when he was running for office the first time that he would leave CA dispensaries alone and then had his Justice Department do the exact opposite.

 

You don't believe that surely. These agency heads are often handed power from previous government. We have the same here. Loyalties lay in their party of choice.

One Godwin Grech is proof. Handed power over a public organisation by the previous Liberal government, when John Howard was chucked out of office and Labor got in he was left in position, as most public office tenures go for life. The whole time he was doing his best to pull-down the new government. Look up "utegate" if you want full story.

ADDED: I do believe the majority of police are republican-minded but happy to be corrected on that. What percentage of the force would you think would be republicans?

[video=youtube;XxlL0I5AWLI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxlL0I5AWLI[/video]

 

Its not a matter of belief. It is a matter of fact. Federal law enforcement doesn't wipe it's ass without permission up the chain of command. Your disbelief makes it no less factual.

Consider yourself corrected. The majority of Police, at least in California, belong to public employee unions. Republicans may be fans of rule of law, but those who enforce the law, by virtue of their union membership, are likely mostly Democrats. This is also true of prison guards. Every election, their unions make massive donations to the Democratic party in exchange for unaffordable changes to their pension plans.

 

The agency heads in the US all serve at the pleasure of the President. He names them. If they are in office, it is because the current President put them there or left them there. It is his discretion. That is why we end up with new Secretary of State, new Attorney General, etc. Two of the few positions that tend to see overlap from one administration to another are Director of CIA and Defense Secretary - two of the least political positions.

 

This is an interesting idea, wonder if it will be legal to do so, just thinking about the amount of money that can be made is making me go crazy.

 

Yes, Obama was a pothead, but his DOJ has given California's medical marijuana dispensaries hell...
and has been stated, the DOJ is under the rule of Holder, Obama's faithful attack dog. There is no question Holder gets his marching orders from the Oval Office. It's been called the most politicized justice dept of a century. Why a self-professed former pothead sicked the justice dept after people that did the same thing he did I have no idea.

Legalization, at the very least for marijuana, is gaining serious traction.
Many liberals like the idea of legalization, and Libertarians (which includes a LOT of people in the Tea Party) oppose government intervention so they tend to favor legalizing drugs. Libertarians figure if someone wants to do drugs, let 'em. The Tea Party was NOT started by the religious crowd, it was started by fiscal conservatives / anti-big government people. That's basically a Libertarian movement by definition.

On the other side...
the more fascist Dems favor anything that smacks of government control, and much of the religious right of the GOP favors legislating morality and thus opposes decriminalization. And the UN has made loud protests saying Obama MUST do something to oppose the decriminalization laws that recently passed in Colorado and Washington state, so the guys that kiss the UNs ass are going to be anti-legalization.

So, this topic creates odd alliances
As for the law community, no, they are by no means a GOP stronghold. I raised the topic of marijuana legalization on FB and a cop friend raised the whole "gateway drug argument" (which ftr I still think is horse-hockey). Plus, cops are as stated above heavily unionized, AND many of them like the idea of THEM being the only ones with guns, so many cops are wholly against the GOP.

I've responded on the topic in here with the same arguments used in the opening post...
...so like I said, the topic has a propensity to have people agreeing that normally dont. Here's a post I made here three years ago:

 

As my favourite American says, "if it doesn't make sense then it's not true". It doesn't make sense Obama would push harder on enforcement. Then when you consider these changes are done whilst Obama's in charge, even moreso, what your alleging does not make sense.

It makes sense that the justice department does'nt want to lose its anti-dope funding.

I started the 'Mullers & Packers Union' here in Australia in the early 90s with the sole aim of marijuana decriminalisation. Many people have been fighting many years to make this happen. The wheels move oh so slowly.

From my perspective (Dems) I see the government's role is to do all the stuff I don't want to do. Like i'm hiring a maid to do my cleaning. The Republicans see it as she's (the maid) is running my life, when nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact she's just cleaning up for me.

Gateway's been proven false. More people go harder drugs only because they're already doing something illegal, have contact with a dealer who runs out of dope but has ...you name it. If it was legal there's not much chance of running out and the legal dealers won't be telling you to try some cocaine instead.

The way I see it is legalize and study the result. If it turns out a bad move then criminalise it again. I think it will prove a much better system for all kinds of reasons, not least the cost of policing, which by any standards is a sh!tload, all wasted (no pun intended) money imho.

 

Its not true because you don't get it? My kids don't understand calculus or evolution yet so by your logic, must not be true. Here is something I don't understand but is, nevertheless true. Liberals, by and large, live in denial of reality.

Let me spell it out for you again. The federal justice department reports to Holder who reports directly to Obama. Stories like this one are common place in California, where medical marijuana dispensaries are COMPLETELY LEGAL BY STATE LAW.

 

It's not true if it don't make sense, not 'if I don't get it'. That's what I said. Logic, my friend, logic.

What I don't understand is why Republicans accuse everyone of their own traits. As if they need to get in first.

A big liar accuses everyone of being liars.
Those who live in their own reality accuse others of denying reality.

It's as if they think they might get caught-out in their own failings so have to accuse to bring others down to their level first. Oh, those born-to-rule types.

What makes sense is President Obama has brought about great change whilst his minions are trying to stop him.
These referendum's came about under President Obama, not under Bush or even Clinton. He's the right man for the job.

ADDED: Obama won't go after marijuana states

 

It doesn't make sense to you, just as calculus doesn't make sense to a five year old. That doesn't mean calculus doesn't make sense.

I appreciate the link covering Obama's recent presser, where he talks about not going after marijuana states. It reminds me of the Eric Holder presser held in 2009, where he claimed he would end the "Bush era raids on medical marijuana".

Perhaps you didn't note the date on the article I linked above which talked about all the recent raids on California's medical marijuana, so let me point it out. It was Sept 25, 2012. Bush era raids indeed.

You have inadvertently demonstrated my point. Liberals like yourself live in denial of reality, deciding instead to believe whatever it is you want to believe. Obama's justice department says they wont go after pot in 2009, it must be true! Obama says recently he has bigger fish to fry, it must be true! Ignore the FACT that he has been doing exactly the opposite of what he said he would do on this topic (and many others) since he came into office.

I hate to burst your bubble, but the president has nothing to do with state referendums. California's legalized marijuana came about in 1996, and it had nothing to do with Clinton, or even the California governor. It was a ballot initiative which means the people petitioned to have it on the ballot, and the majority of Californians voted it into law, in spite of the wishes of pot smoking Willy or sneaky Pete Wilson. Wouldn't it suit you better to educate yourself on these topics before opining on them?

One last thing regarding Obama's most recent lie regarding going after legal pot. At the same time he was saying the Feds had bigger fish to fry, his mouthpiece Jay Carney was pointing out Obama's comments were similar to his remarks about the use of medical marijuana in states where it is legal. Good point Jay, we'll keep that in mind. Lets just not take our eye off the facts: