What this country needs...

What this country needs is a renaissance of free thinking. It wasn't all that long ago that the southern desert of Nevada was uninhabitable. Now, Las Vegas is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the nation. Prostitution, gambling, and all the problems that come along with them are outlawed in most states, but the federal government seems to have no problem allowing it in Nevada.

So why not allow independent business owners to open a haven for cannabis users, much like Amsterdam? Choose some remote, out of the way wasteland that NOBODY else wants, and let private investors create a safe place for canna-tourism. It would pump BILLIONS of dollars into the treasury through taxes, would keep those horrible people who enjoy that recreation bunched together so that they can't hurt the "good" people of the country, and would ease a huge debate over legality. And it might lessen the cost burden of spending so many billions of dollars arresting folks who choose that version of relaxation over alcohol.

Somehow it needs to be brought up on a referendum in a state willing to go to battle with the government. Let the voting tax payers of a state who are sick of their property taxes and personal income taxes going up and up and up choose to let vices like cannabis, alcohol, gambling, and prostitution pay for public education, road construction, public housing, etc.

If you can build what is now Las Vegas out of the wasteland of southern Nevada, surely we could find someplace suitable that nobody else can profit from to build our utopia.

Onward!