Smoke it or get off the pot...

Stardate 4072.7

From the Red Deer Advocate...

VANCOUVER - Marijuana should be legalized and regulated like alcohol and tobacco, a drug-prevention report supported by Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell recommended on Wednesday.

"Legalizing marijuana allows us to be able to control a drug that at present is not being controlled," Campbell said.

"And by us being able to control it, we can then start to control how it's used, who gets it. We have no control over it at all right now."

The marijuana industry is estimated by the Fraser Institute to be worth $7 BILLION in BC alone. It's estimated that governments could collect more than $2 BILLION a year in taxes if pot were legalized."We tax the living hell out of that and put it into health care," said Campbell, noting legalization would end grow ops in houses and take organized crime out of the marijuana industry.

Well naturally, it would take time for these effects to occur as it did with alcohol... How many people actually make their own booze nowadays? As compared to the number of people that drink it?

BC Marijuana Party leader Marc Emery applauded the report.

"The government should license people to grow marijuana in green houses, not in homes obviously," he said. "And it should be collecting income tax on these producers."

Prohibition is costing the government a fortune, he said "Because you can't tax and regulate marijuana from production to sale if it's not all legal."

Not to mention the thousands of man-hours and resources wasted in small time possession charges and such. There are likely more people in jail for minor marijuana charges than rapists, murderers and robbers. Let the cops worry about violent crime and let us buy marijuana at the beer store :)