Marijuana Dealers Offer Schwarzenegger One Billion Dollars

[Al B. Fuct]

Author: Scott Morgan

Date: 08/06/2007

Source: http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2..._offer_schwarze

Copyright: 2007 stopthedrugwar.org

 

Marijuana Dealers Offer Schwarzenegger One Billion Dollars

 

Posted in Chronicle Blog by Scott Morgan on Mon, - 10:05pm

 

As California faces a $1 billion budget shortfall, the marijuana industry offers a commonsense solution to the state's fiscal problems:

 

August 6 -- A coalition of California marijuana growers and dealers has offered Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger one billion dollars to solve the current state budget crisis. The group, calling itself Let Us Pay Taxes makes the offer through its web site

LetUsPayTaxes.com

. The offer comes at a time when the California legislature is deadlocked on a new budget and California has stopped issuing checks for vitally needed social services. Legislators are currently arguing over which programs will be cut in order to balance the budget.

 

This effort is the brainchild of drug policy expert/activist Cliff Shaffer, who has hit the nail square on its head. The failure of prohibitionists to grasp the inherent economic lunacy of the drug war has always been particularly startling to me. I grudgingly accept that drug war supporters feel no sympathy for the victims of harsh laws, and even that they clumsily attribute the harmful effects of prohibition to the drugs themselves. Yet, tragic and irrational as these beliefs may be, they do not explain the willingness of government to cast aside billions in taxable commerce.

 

Marijuana is, after all, the #1 cash crop in the nation. This fact cleanly illustrates the failure of prohibition, while vividly depicting the massive windfall available to any state with the wisdom to pursue regulation. And all this is to say nothing of the incalculable value of discontinuing our current marijuana policy, which is as wasteful and ineffective as can be.

 

Gov. Schwarzenegger is unlikely to be impressed with this offer, unfortunately, having vetoed California's hemp bill over concerns regarding conflict with federal law. Yet, as Shaffer points out, there is truly nothing the DEA can do to prevent state level regulation of marijuana. The vastly smaller medical marijuana industry has already overwhelmed the agency's enforcement capacity. Ongoing DEA raids are merely a face-saving gesture, designed to confuse legislators in prospective medical marijuana states. The full-scale regulation of the marijuana economy in any state would reveal DEA's genuine impotence, permanently burying the myth that conflict with federal law ensures some sort of brutal showdown.

 

Having failed to get our point across in so many ways, it's about time we start offering people a billion dollars.

[themanwhoinventedmeh]

HERE HERE!

[Oz]

guess it comes back to the old saying "Money Talks, Bullshit Walks"

[WantDaChronic]

unfortunately if he takes the money it will be seen as a billion dollar bribe to get marijuana legalized and schwarzenegger will not only lose his job, he'll probably face criminal charges as well

 

but it could really work well for the pro-marijuana groups for him to reject their offer. since they have a billion dollars to play with and the state government is being forced to cut heaps of programs for the public, the marijuana groups could save those programs while enforcing the knowledge that marijuana has paid for them. I think building a church or 2, fixing up a few play grounds, planting some trees and donating money to local schools that are under funded would go a hell of a long way in convincing the public marijuana isnt so evil

[Beans]

Hahahaha.

 

Cannabis is the key!

[Al B. Fuct]

unfortunately if he takes the money it will be seen as a billion dollar bribe to get marijuana legalized and schwarzenegger will not only lose his job, he'll probably face criminal charges as well

 

Unfortunately, Der Governator could not actually legalise cannabis for recreational use in California. The MMJ initiative, Prop 215, hinged upon states' rights to administer healthcare- and recreational use is (arguably) not healthcare.

 

MMJ users in Calif are still subject to federal laws against cultivation and possession, though it's hard to prosecute unless the cannabis crosses a state border. If the MMJ is cultivated and consumed in Calif, it's very hard to get a Federal charge on the grower, but they managed it with Ed Rosenthal.

[67Special]

unfortunately if he takes the money it will be seen as a billion dollar bribe to get marijuana legalized and schwarzenegger will not only lose his job, he'll probably face criminal charges as well

 

but it could really work well for the pro-marijuana groups for him to reject their offer. since they have a billion dollars to play with and the state government is being forced to cut heaps of programs for the public, the marijuana groups could save those programs while enforcing the knowledge that marijuana has paid for them. I think building a church or 2, fixing up a few play grounds, planting some trees and donating money to local schools that are under funded would go a hell of a long way in convincing the public marijuana isnt so evil

I thought that they meant that taxes on mj (once regulated) combined with the savings from discontinuing their current mj policies would fill the $1 billion shortfall in the states budget.

It's a fucking great opportunity for the reformists to bring attention to the cost of prohibition and the potential gains from regulation. Good luck to em

 

I totally agree with your charity idea wdc, but the gov would probably claim that we were donating drug money. If there was a way to guarantee to the public that our money was earned legally it would have great effect imo, especially if the donations and volunteering were focused on services which the gov under-funds, like health or social services. How to do it publicly without risking the safety of our grows would be the challenge though