The Keys To Prop 19? Jobs, Taxes, And Crime
Joe | Jul 27, 2010 | Comments 4
California voters will gather at the ballot box in November, and one of the issues they will decide is whether marijuana will be legalized for all CA citizens over the age of 21 – Proposition 19. And there are three main areas they will look at to decide: jobs, taxes, and crime.
Jobs. You might have noticed that there aren’t any; anywhere. If you are unemployed, you know this all too well. If you have a job, chances are you have a friend or family member who can’t find one. The passage of Prop 19 will mean many new jobs for Californians. Growers and distributors will be in great demand. Cynics would even say fast food restaurants and video game sellers will get increased “stoner” business.
Taxes. The state of CA needs tax revenue desperately. A $20 billion deficit sits on the heads of every man, woman, and child, and that’s just one state! Estimates range from a couple hundred million dollars to $1.5 billion a year going to the tax coffers. Needless to say, Prop 19 will help the budget problem.
Crime. Prohibition increases crimes, plain and simple. Look at crime during alcohol prohibition, and look at the increase in crime in this country since the War on Drugs began in 1970. Prohibition inflates the price of marijuana, raising the level of violence thugs will use to secure those profits.
“Look at all the people that are being killed in Mexico every day, as well as the home invasion robberies and other things that come from the inflated price that’s caused by prohibition,” says Richard Lee, who authored Prop 19. Lee runs Oaksterdam University in Oakland, a school which teaches people how to grow medical marijuana and run a dispensary.
Lee says the benefits of legalization go beyond sales tax revenues, and include “ancillary benefits such a tourism, jobs, and hotel rooms and transportation and food that would go along with the cannabis industry.”
So many people die because we give cartels and gangs a ton of money to buy guns with. Let us end the madness this fall in CA, and let their example spread across this country. Jobs, taxes, and crime are things that effect everyone – and marijuana legalization can effect all those things in a positive way.
Filed Under: Activism • Exclusive Web Content • Politics • The War On Drugs
Alcohol prohibition, was a tremendous failure due to the incredible amount of crime and disorder it created. Human nature hasn’t changed since the 1930s. Then, the distribution of liquor was turned over to a whole new group of criminal entrepreneurs. Now, due to the drug war, dangerous mind altering substances are sold, unregulated, by another new criminal class. The drug war has turned most of the inner cities into civil war zones, so our intentions in prohibiting these substances may well be good, but the result of our inability to recognize the futility of such an action will just both deepen and prolong the agony caused by this useless and dangerous policy.
The future depends on whether or not enough of us are willing to take a long look at the tragic results of prohibition. If we continue to skirt the primary issue while refusing to address the root problem, then we can expect no other result than a worsening of the current dire situation. Good intentions are no match for the immutable realities of human nature.
Another key is the safety and well-being of my children!
I hope my kids don’t use marijuana, either as teenagers or as young adults, but if they do, I REALLY hope they don’t end up in jail! I hope that all parents will join in the fight to stop putting our own kids in jail over something as silly as marijuana. Yes, it dumbs a person down for a little while (about as bad as a day on the video games) and yes, it has some minor health effects (about as bad as smoking a cigarette, I suppose), but those aren’t NEARLY as bad as the effects of being locked up IN JAIL WITH THE SEXUAL PREDATORS, and loss of financial aid, etc. that comes, not from the marijuana, but from the LAW. It’s time to quit letting government officials ruin our kids’ lives over a little marijuana!
Californians: register to vote at
h t t p s://w w w .sos.ca.gov/nvrc/fedform/ Just fill out the form and mail it in!
Other states: Google your state name and “voter registration” to find out how to register!
what? you aren’t being rational, and some of the jumps made in your logic weren’t “leaps of faith”. They were propaganda regurgitation. Marijuana does NOT, and SHOULD NOT be made, create a direct path towards the sodomizing of your children.
I know In a time of high unemployment its hard to get the prohibitionists snouts out of the Government Trough. However this has been over 70 years of the most destructive Government policy since SLAVERY. I am willing to wager you that the passage of this law, will have more effect on reducing the funds to the Taliban and other Terrorist groups than all The troops in the world. The world is watching pop19 this is the new Bunker Hill.