;)
But rather than get into the reasons for my personal choice (perhaps another time on a separate post) I would like to address the issue of legalizing pot.
Even though I am not in favor of individuals smoking pot I do think that the drug should be legalized. Why? Well, for one I think the punishment for growing, consuming and distributing pot is too severe. I also do not understand how more harmful drugs such as tobacco cigarettes and alcohol are made legal but weed is off limits.
Earlier this year the White House decided to hold a forum in which President Obama would answer questions submitted by the public. 92,000 people offered responses and most of them seemed concerned with the legalization of marijuana.
When asked if legalization of marijuana would actually assist our economy he said, "no".
Bill Maher and guests Bill Rushdie, Mos Def and Christopher Hitchens discuss marijuana and Obama's response
I can't see the President ever suggesting that legalization of marijuana would be a good thing. He's the President for crying out loud. If he were to suggest legalization the public majority..including many of his fellow politicians would have his head on a platter.
Even so there are some details that are worthy of addressing. According to an article put out earlier this year by Time Magazine, the United States spends $68 billion per year on corrections, and one third of those being corrected are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes. 47.5% of all arrests are drug related. It is argued that much of this money could be spent towards more needed areas.
According to Time online, "At the same time, there is an enormous potential windfall in the taxation of marijuana. It is estimated that pot is the largest cash crop in California, with annual revenues approaching $14 billion. A 10% pot tax would yield $1.4 billion in California alone. And that's probably a fraction of the revenues that would be available — and of the economic impact, with thousands of new jobs in agriculture, packaging, marketing and advertising. A veritable marijuana economic-stimulus package!"
(time.com)
Is there a potential that marijuana will become abused if legalized? I'd say that marijuana is currently abused by some. Soooooooooo many people smoke pot and while not all are addicted many abuse it in the sense that they rely on it to grant them the escapism they are looking for.
The cry of potential harms of pot legalization do not seem all that realistic. Some say that adding pot to the list of other legalized drugs would debilitate our society further. Well, I'm not interested in anyone smoking a blunt in my face anymore than I am someone smoking a tobacco cig in my face. But I'd like to think that if pot was legalized it'd be monitored just as it is in other countries that allow it.
My only real concern/fear comes in the form of a question. Could legalizing pot potentially be deemed as a glamorization of pot use?
***
In other marijuana related news...
Graphic design magazine Print, challenged four designers to create market packaging for marijuana were it to be legalized.
(fastcompany.com)
(fastcompany.com)
A graphic design practice by the name of Lust, created a cover package for marijuana that displays info about the content of marijuana.
(fastcompany.com)
The New York and Europe branches of Base, created containers made from repurposed packaging from other brands
(fastcompany.com)
(fastcompany.com)
(fastcompany.com)
Strømme Throndsen, an Olso firm, created big boxes and travel sized boxes to carry the product
(fastcompany.com)
Philidelphia design pair Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers, known as Heads of State created "bag of weed" theme.
In another post perhaps I will get into why I am not in favor of pot smoking. However, let me reiterate that I think the harms of keeping pot illegal is much worse. Those who want to smoke pot are. I do not think legalization will necessarily increase the number of pot smokers. Let our US government put our money to better use.
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