OK, now you are in for it. I have read the initial post and the conversations that follow. I hardly know where to start. Maybe a compliment (so as to keep your attention). Matt??s point about the people??s right to self determination and the laws we choose to enact and enforce is good. And yes, commercial production of weed would/could just fall into another big corporation umbrella. I am responding in the hopes of STIMULATING some honest research from you folks. Many comments (temporary taxes from WW2) are accurate but only go HALFWAY!
Matt and I can tell you FIRST HAND that the way to get the governments attention is with the MONEY. That??s how we stopped the Vietnam War. When hundreds of thousands of middle class Americans deducted a portion of their taxes that was being spent to murder people overseas there was not enough jail space to house them all. So they had to pull out of the damn war.
The WAR ON DRUGS is no different. IT??S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!
Yes there is 70 years of propaganda telling people that DRUGS WILL KILL YOU and we all know just how far that crap got with US. If you can find a copy of the movie ??GRASS? buy it or at least rent it for a weekend and invite a ton of friends. The war on drugs is just another aspect of the larger war on personal freedom. Dear GOD you don??t want me to go on that RANT for long.
So yes it is the money. PLEASE remember there is more than one side to that coin. There is the income from taxes, but the greater amount of money is the SAVINGS from not having to fund: the DEA, Drug Courts, Prisons, propaganda programs, drug stings, welfare for the left behind, and all the ancillary costs of drug persecution. If you read my article The True Cost of Cannabis Legislation you can do the numbers your self, it??s stunning. How about $1,000,000,000 (one BILLION) a year to start; TO START!! That??s US dollars we are talking about. That??s just the savings, the SAVINGS!!!!!!!!! The additional income from allowing individual states to regulate cannabis use (like alcohol or gambling or prostitution) is another BILLION a year. Not over ten years not after five but from year 1 and ON. DEAR CREEPING JESUS WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK IT??S ALL ABOUT?!?! Cops need criminals in order to justify their jobs??; an efficient police force just puts itself out of business in a few years.
As DAVES19 mentioned the Netherlands has gotten past the initial problems with a simple and elegant solution. Possession of more than five plants gets you a jail sentence. However if you are registered and certified with the Cannabis Producers Assocician ( read Union) and you have a contract to deliver to a specific coffee shop you can have 25 plants. With proper conditions that??s about twelve pounds every sixty days, not a misprint: twelve pounds every sixty days. For more info on efficient growing methods go to www.growweed.com and order Cathy??s book, its real; I??ve used it. That is the way Dutch coffee shops provide an average of 20 jobs per storefront. If the 735,000 people imprisoned for cannabis crimes in the US in 2000 each ran a coffee shop that would be 14.7 million NEW jobs. In Amsterdam each coffee shop keeps a couple of hotels and a restaurant or two in business. More jobs. Please read my articles on cannabis legislation scattered through this category.
So while concerns about taxation and corporate cannabis are valid, so are concerns about personal privacy from the grow light squad. HOWEVER if ENOUGH people got off their ass and read up on the subject and spread the truth to the non smoking Americans we would be able to convince the majority of taxpayers that the waste of their money can STOP and stop NOW. We can provide healthcare for all Americans, we CAN provide a quality education for ALL Americans, we can provide good housing for ALL Americans. IT CAN BE DONE.
The only problems are that most potheads would rather get stoned and play video games and BITCH rather than get out the vote and drag their friends to the voter registration tables. REGISTER, PARTICIPATE, VOTE. It??s your FREEDOM at stake.
OK enough for the moment, I need to go smoke a thumb sized joint of some White Rhino to get my attitude under control. In the mean time YOU, that??s right YOU! Go search out my other articles and read about what you can do to help the cause of personal freedom.
Two last points. The American Colonies supported the revolution with cannabis. Possession of Cannabis is LEGAL if you have an ATF issued TAX STAMP. Yes today in 2006 it is legal if you have a stamp. You never head of this? Read some more of my articles I discuss this more than once. There is an office and a bureaucrat in Washington DC whose job it is to issue the stamps that are still printed and issued. Abit erratically and only a dozen a year but he does have a desk, a phone and a filing cabinet full of stamps waiting to be issued.
To anyone who finished reading this thanks; I??m sorry I want off for a bit

Tons of Love to All
Doctor G