It’s the Pot Economy, Stupid

It looks like the pot debate just got real. As the nation faces its worst economic crisis in generations, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has introduced a trailblazing bill to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. Hard on the heels of Michael Phelps’ nationally-resonant bong demo, Ammiano’s gesture is a whole lot more intentional. One hopes it will stir the long-overdue national examination of the financial and human price that we pay for criminalizing pot.

The most widely used illicit drug in the western world, marijuana is a fact of life that’s been sampled by upwards of 100,000,000 Americans. Officially prohibited since 1937, we finally seem on the threshold of a promising moment in our nation’s tortured relationship to the drug. On November 4 alone, Massachusetts decriminalized personal pot use, Michigan became the thirteenth state to allow its medical use, and we elected a president who’s openly admitted to smoking it. National polls and the yawn that greeted the Phelps media frenzy indicate that Americans are reconciled to pot’s largely benign role in our culture.

Nevertheless, the mindless prohibition enforcement machine rolls on. In 2007, over 800,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana-related crimes (nearly 90 percent of them for possession), with upwards of 85,000 of them serving sentences in jail or prison. In the U.S., incredibly there are more arrests for marijuana possession each year than for all violent crimes combined. This astounding human toll from enforcing the ban on marijuana costs taxpayers roughly $8 billion each year. And those wasted resources are further compounded by the total capitulation of the massive pot market to an underground economy to gangsters who laugh all the way to the bank.

Amidst a national economic meltdown, California’s budget turmoil is the worst in the nation. After an excruciating three-month deadlock, the dysfunctional Sacramento legislature closed a $42 billion deficit by slashing aid to the most vulnerable in the state, raising a host of taxes and fees, and kicking the can down the road with billions more in borrowing. Meanwhile, California’s largest cash crop was studiously avoided in the frenzied search for politically-viable revenue sources. California’s marijuana yield is conservatively valued at $13.8 billion annually – nearly double the value of the state’s vegetable and grape crops combined.

Murtha’s Gitmo Invite Could Be Stimulus for Western Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha says he’d be willing to house Guantanamo Bay detainees in his district.

Rep. John Murtha’s invitation to house Guantanamo Bay detainees in his district has some local officials seeing dollar signs — even though Murtha’s comment was met with disbelief by others.

The Pennsylvania Democrat, chairman of the defense subcommittee for appropriations, is renowned for his ability to steer earmarked dollars to his district.

And after Murtha told FOX News that he’d be willing to take in terrorist suspects, some saw it as a job-creation opportunity. His district’s maximum-security prisons are full, according to the state Department of Corrections, so a new prison would likely be needed to house any of the 245 detainees now in Cuba. [More..]

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/01/22/murthas-invitation-gitmo-prisoners-create-jobs-officials-say/

Government Seeks Control of Christian Residential Ministries

Government Seeks Control of Christian Residential Ministries
Nov 17

Christian groups homes for troubled children and teens are under threat from this latest government initiative. Under the guise of preventing child abuse, the government wants to insert itself into private Christian residential facilities. Here’s the bill vote and here’s what one pastor has to say about it. Please help spread the word.