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It's high time to change pot laws

Published: Sunday, July 11, 2010

Updated: Sunday, July 11, 2010 16:07

In light of the new ridiculous state law that makes it a crime to sell pipes and bongs in Florida, we felt it was an opportune time to express why we think pipes and bongs should not only be sold anywhere and everywhere — it would be profitable for girl scouts to sell bongs with cookies — but also why marijuana should be legalized and decriminalized in the first place.

The new law makes it so that stores may sell bongs or pipes only if they have a state license to sell tobacco and derive 75 percent of their revenue from tobacco products or no more than 25 percent from smoking devices. If lawmakers think this will really curb people from smoking pot, then they must be high on something strong.

Why not make it illegal to sell anything that could possibly be used to smoke, like plastic soda bottles? While you’re at it, get rid of aluminum cans, cigarette paper and Sharpies.

Thankfully, there are pending lawsuits to counteract this insanity.

Instead of focusing on ways to keep people from smoking pot, why not create some debate in Florida about how beneficial legalizing pot could be for the state?

Marijuana is just a plant with a chemical in it that makes you feel a certain way when you smoke it. But to someone dying from cancer, pot can be one of the few things to make them feel human as they go through brutal chemotherapy. Instead of backward legislation to ban smoking devices, we hope Florida can push for medical marijuana dispensaries.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem likely to happen any time soon considering California, a liberal state that’s had medical marijuana dispensaries for some time, has shut down many of its dispensaries.

Marijuana medical dispensaries will not only create jobs in a weak economy, but can also spur people to place less of a needless stigma on smoking pot.

After all, the stuff has proven to be way less dangerous than tobacco or alcohol. Some act as though this entire country would go crazy if we decided to legalize pot. But you know what would happen overnight should it one day become legal in Florida or even in the U.S.?

Absolutely nothing.

Except maybe someone’s life wouldn’t be ruined should they be caught with just a small amount of pot on them.

Aside from being able to explore its medical benefits, legalizing pot could save small farms that are being bought out by big corporations, help save tax money currently being used to fund our prisons — there were more than 840,000 marijuana-related arrests in 2008, according to drugwarfacts.org — and can help keep people from worse drugs. We can take the money out of the hands of drug dealers and put it into a legitimate American business.

Legalizing pot would make it nothing more than something you can buy from your local grocer or farmer, and, like cigarettes, it’s likely people will continue to buy it no matter how it’s taxed. Think of what the state could do with that extra tax money. We bet even Tea Partyers wouldn’t care about a high marijuana tax.

Let’s sum it up this way, in case you still aren’t sure.

Pot: legalize it, tax it to high heavens, and fix our failing schools.

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6 comments

Anonymous
Wed Jul 14 2010 08:46
Great article!! I totally agree with you. Nevermind the people who go around with their noses in the air sniffiing for people to pick on and bash... Most of the time they have such incorrect information that it makes them look very stupid. :-)
Anonymous
Wed Jul 14 2010 06:59
There are thousands of DUI related crashes and deaths each year due to marijuana and other drug use. Anyone who thinks smoking marijuana is a good thing has smokes far too much of it and killed WAY to many brain cells.
Anonymous
Wed Jul 14 2010 06:56
"If lawmakers think this will really curb people from smoking pot, then they must be high on something strong."

Are you admitting here that a person who smokes pot is delusional? I think this line helps make the argument to for those who support drug laws as they are.

Anonymous
Tue Jul 13 2010 00:25
Well basically you just said that everything would change if they legalized pot. After all, it would give the small farmer an opportunity to survive and prosper, which would not be pleasing to the agricorporations. It would deprive corrupt cops of an opportunity to threaten someone with the bag they pull out of their own pocket and put in the suspect's pocket. It would deprive private prisons of their much needed non-violent guests. Yes, it would change everything, only for the better. The problem is the government does not represent the people so much, as it represses them. And the worse things get, which is also a result of government inteference in our lives, the more tyrannical and illogical they will become. All the way up to the time we say we have had enough. That time is closer than most of us want to admit, but we still have that nagging feeling in our guts that this government will fall. How many even believe there will be an election in 2012 for President? Now if you do, do you believe it will be a legitimate election, or just another puppet selection? These are questions becoming more and more common today, and the government response to these types of questions is most unsettling. Just as it is with marijuana. None of it makes sense, because people look at it from a perspective that is incorrect. The laws do make sense, but not from a perspective any person who loves liberty and justice would want. It's important to ask yourself, from what perspective does it make sense for a state to have a law in which the only harm created is the harm to the law against the act? Why would a state want to use feudal law to take your property and cash? Why would a state want to imprison so many of it's minorities over this plant? Why would a state do this is an important question to ask. It's the answers that are unsettling.
Anonymous
Mon Jul 12 2010 12:42
Thanks CFF for such a positive and poignant article. By teaming up with NORML@UCF, Orlando for Decriminalization is currently working on a ballot initiative in the City of Orlando. We need nearly 10k petitions. Facebook us or Join NORML@UCF to join the cause. We need your help to make legalization become a reality!

NORMLUCF.COM

RayDiPasquale
Mon Jul 12 2010 11:08
If you want to change the laws go here www.pufmm.org

Much virtue in herbs, little in men."
Benjamin Franklin

"When society turns the sick into criminals then we're all repeat offenders" - Recidivist3







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