Marijuanamerica

But part of my psychological shift involved the fact that marijuana had been vilified as dangerous. Once I tried it and realized it seemed relatively innocuous, I wondered what other “dangerous” illegal drugs I might enjoy.

In fact, according to the book Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts, three studies concluded that stoned drivers were not only less culpable than alcohol-positive drivers, but sober drivers as well.

I didn’t intend to focus so intently on marijuana outlaws in this story, and I certainly didn’t plan to become one myself. But it has had the effect of viscerally proving—to me, at least—the absurdity of this prohibition. As long as any aspect of the weed business—cultivation, sales, transportation, or consumption—remains illegal, American marijuan

The estimated cost of the operation—which occurred almost simultaneously with the launch of the Iraq War—was $12 million, and involved over two thousand law enforcement officers.1

most violence attributed to marijuana is a result of the ban that Anslinger spearheaded. This prohibition leads to secret grow operations and surreptitious exchanges of cash among the type of people who are willing to work in the black market, who are also the type of people willing to defend their cash and merchandise with violence.

But the reality of the matter is: Regardless of attitude shifts, marijuana is already widely available to American kids. “Our children have never had greater access to marijuana,” claims former Seattle police chief and drug reform activist Norm Stamper. “It’s easier for them to score pot than a six-pack of Coors.” He’s probably right—you don’t need

Reagan’s first drug czar, Carlton Turner, was quoted in Time magazine as saying, “Marijuana leads to homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune system, and therefore to AIDS.” He also said marijuana use was directly linked to “the present young-adult generation’s involvement in anti-military, anti-nuclear power, anti-big business, anti-authority de

A 2011 report written by UC-Berkeley law professor Robert J. MacCoun and published in the journal Addiction found that 71.5 percent of American teenagers said it’s very easy to get pot, compared with 41.5 percent in Holland.

Spending millions to maintain and even increase America’s prison population strikes me as soulless to the point of ghoulishness. I would think even rabid anti-drug folks might agree.

Regardless of where you stand on the legalization issue, there is no denying that California’s medical marijuana laws boost local economies. And some of the primary benefactors are old-timer garden gurus who probably don’t smoke at all.