Man o man! I thought the last part of this stuff about legalizing marijuana would be the easiest. It has turned out to be the most difficult. If things went along as planned the cigarette manufacturers would be producing and distributing packages of marijuana cigarettes with stiff taxes levied at both the federal and state levels. These packages would be available at state liquor outlets to those over 21 years of age. Revenue generated from the sales taxes would be earmarked for education (75%) and law enforcement (25%).

Enter the Great American Tragedy. Me and everyone who reads this blog post, as well as 225,000,000 citizens of this great nation, all believe that when the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington, DC, see this influx of money they will clamor to get in line to take it. Lofty sums generated with the best of intentions will be winnowed to a trickle.

The only thought I had was to create a small board of non-political types in D.C. and in each state. They would oversee the offices that take in this money, do the math, and distribute all of it to the two departments. The boards would be comprised of six teachers. Two each representing elementary school, high school and state colleges.

Teachers because they would be motivated and, perhaps more importantly, they are people of modest means. If a Ferrari shows up in their driveway somebody’s going to notice. These people would be involved in the transfer of money. There would be no reason for them to be taking anyone to a two martini lunch or flying off to Tahiti. The board and staff pay themselves and their overhead.

That’s the best I could come up with. Maybe some commentary will offer some input. This part of the legalization issue has become gloomy. It would be nice to say “Here you go, government, here’s the money we promised now do the right thing”. That so many of us think so very little of Washington, DC, is truly the Great American Tragedy.

Consider the double digit billions of dollars spent on the war on drugs. Whether this is money well spent or money wasted depends upon your point of view. There are those who believe that the amounts should be increased to affect a more viable war, while others think it’s like throwing good money after bad. I have a plethora of statistics to show the war a failure while you have a plethora of statistics to show the war a success. As earlier discussed, an ideological debate cannot be resolved simply by who has the better statistics.

I support law enforcement 100%. I wish there were more federal, state and local officers. In my state the cuts in law enforcement have been drastic and noticeable. Eliminating the war on drugs, per se, would free up tens of billions of dollars which could still be funneled to law enforcement but used to hire and pay more officers within the United States as opposed to spraying paraquat all over Central and South America, not to mention the graft that is Afghanistan.

I also support education. It is the single greatest hope for this country and always has been. Knowledge is power. In my state politicians give a lot of lip service to education yet it’s where the financial cuts come first, and far too often. Class sizes of 40+ students, college tuition through the ceiling, poorly paid and poorly motivated teachers, the list goes on and on. There is something wrong with a culture that chooses to build more prisons while closing down more schools.


The last 40, or so, comments have left a trail of many words. Legalize, decriminalize, a joint here, an ounce there, medical marijuana in this state but not in that, on and on. Marijuana laws are a nationwide willy-nilly. So let’s put a very fine point on what I see as the best chance to ever come to terms with this issue of marijuana.

If you want to gain respectability and get the attention of politicians, bureaucrats and big business types you have to show them the money. Simply decriminalizing marijuana has little appeal. It doesn’t generate any revenue. What benefit is it to the United States if Gomer can have an ounce in his pocket? And how does that impact the war on drugs? It doesn’t. The same supply lines exist, the same mules are locked up and the same cartels are being shown the money.

If there is a big business that could use an infusion of capital it’s the tobacco industry. Law suits from citizens, as well as states, coupled with a diminishing demand for their product have severely crippled these once proud manufacturing giants. The tobacco industry would benefit greatly from the manufacture and distribution of marijuana. First of all they would have to invest very little in retooling to produce a ready-rolled joint. Secondly, I can’t imagine it costing any more to grow and harvest a weed than it does to grow and harvest tobacco.

We already know that tobacco companies can get a pack of cigarettes into our hands for roughly $5.00. Government averages put the amount of taxes per pack at 0.24 federal and 0.29 state. Allowing for the tax deductions, and the ever present middlemen, let’s say that the tobacco industry can generate a pack of cigarettes for $2.30 and still recognize a profit.

We would have to cut the tobacco industry some slack in return for their involvement. They would need to increase their security because growing large amounts of marijuana in a field would tempt Gomer to steal it. We would need to grant even more slack in that they (tobacco industries) could not be held liable for anything untoward which may result from smoking their product. If Gomer loses his job because he smoked marijuana he cannot file any torte against the manufacturer. If these considerations are not granted, the tobacco industry would be foolish to undertake the production and distribution of marijuana.

So to cover their additional expenses, let’s say for the sake of conversation, the tobacco companies can charge $7.00 for a pack of ready rolled marijuana cigarettes wholesale. A firm grip and a watchful eye must be placed on the middlemen who will, no doubt, want to jack up their profit margins as well. The package of ready rolls will follow the same path as a fifth of whiskey from the manufacturer to a liquor store. Along the way a federal tax of $5.00 would be levied as well as a state tax of $8.00. Using this admittedly remedial equation a pack of ready rolled marijuana cigarettes would sell for $20.00 a pack.


$20.00 for twenty ready rolls that don’t have sticks and seeds and duff and paraquat and dog pee and God only knows what else. Even Gomer would buy a product like that. Gomer would have to buy a product like that because possession of any other sort of marijuana would still be as illegal as moonshine and illegal growers no better than those operating a still in the hollow. As the availability increased the drug smuggling routes would decrease as a natural process. Smuggling marijuana into the United States would be neither profitable nor worth the effort.

The new monies generated from this activity would go directly to the federal and state education departments. This money would not be for pot holes or two martini lunches or congressional trips to anywhere. This money would go to build schools already needed and refurbish those already built. Ensuring the delivery of the money will be the next major hurdle so the next post will discuss counting the beans.

As always I encourage your comments on what you think might work. This series started out as a discussion and your input is important. May I also recommend a website filled with the pros and cons of the drug war: www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm

I started out the post “pass that roach, please” by pointing out the overall negative appearance put forth by proponents of legalizing marijuana. I closed that post with some words from Judge Martin Haynes. “Few public officials dare to advance alternatives. Doing so threatens the loss of the next election, or the next appointment”.

Addressing these two points is paramount to attempting any sort of national discussion around the legalization of marijuana. The first point is easy. Clean up your act. If you are currently employed at a job with ten or more divergent people there’s a good chance that a couple of you are pot smokers. It would be difficult to tell at first glimpse because people don’t show up at work unshaven, with long hair, unkempt beards on the men, and often giving the appearance of someone stoned. There are millions of pot smokers that are presentable and possess enough social grace that you could take them anywhere

There are those who picture marijuana use the way it was depicted in a movie even older than me, “Reefer Madness”. To those people, saying that there are millions of pot smokers is disbelieved. They believe pot smokers to be a handful of unshaven people with dirty clothes, long hair, unkempt beards on the men, and often giving the appearance of someone stoned.

Those who follow the path of “Reefer Madness” would not believe that the man sitting next to them, the guy in the cubicle with the coat and tie, smokes pot. They would be aghast to learn that the young lady with the cute skirt and impeccable makeup can’t wait to get home to that bong.

So the part about cleaning up the act is easily done. In a lot of ways it’s already done but people with jobs could have a lot to lose in standing up for legalization. It’s the unkempt unemployed that are willing to stand up and they are the ones that need to sit down. Granted there are those of certain younger ages that think that appearance is acceptable. That sort of thinking is expected.

The more difficult nut to crack are people who call themselves “old hippies”. Usually middle aged, they aren’t old hippies at all, and never were, but wish they had lived during those times. The toughest nut to crack are people who really are old hippies. People in their early to mid sixties that just won’t let it go. Their lifestyle has become a warm fuzzy to their arrested development.

The second point will be more difficult. However it shouldn’t be as difficult as it would have been twenty years ago. There needs to be an advancing of this notion of legalization by a public official willing to take the risk. The behavior of the American Congress at this time makes that quite unlikely. There doesn’t seem to be a backbone among them, but there are many more pot smokers in Washington DC than twenty years ago.

That used to be the mantra of pot smokers years ago. “One day the Senate and the House will be filled with people who will, at least, have had exposure to marijuana”. One need go no further back in our history than President Bill Clinhaleton. That has come to pass and there are other opinions besides the laughable opinions put forth in the propaganda of “Reefer Madness”

Perhaps the best way to get any support from any politician is to show the dollars and cents of the matter. Money talks in Washington DC and this legalization must be of a national level. Skipping around from one jurisdiction to another is foolhardy and non-productive. Just look at the confusion in States where medical marijuana is legal. Even with a prescription you expose yourself to Federal charges.



If you have a comment I would sure like to read it. If you have any suggestions please write them. If you know others who could chime in on this issue, please ask them to do so. Next post we’ll show them the money.

Dear friends and frequent visitors,

I am working very hard on the drug legalization issue addressed in “pass that roach, please” but I keep getting interrupted by these little irritants that just keep popping up. This latest distraction happened to me when I experienced a bad karma which found me in town with the Mrs. .

She wanted to go to the mall so I dropped her off and found a remote parking spot; one which afforded a view of our previously arranged door de sortie. I switched the radio from her country to my NPR (I guess opposites attract) and began to observe America at the parking lot.

The first thing I noticed was how many times people circle the lot looking for a position nearer to the front door than the ones currently available. Many, many times; and this in a nation that is already too fat. It wasn’t long before my dander rose exponentially. Some guy in a tricked-out mid eighties Camaro rumbles into a vacant spot within feet of the front door, jumps out and runs into the store. As you might imagine spots within feet of the front door are invariably reserved for Handicapped Parking.

I hate it when that happens! Being a mental midget doesn’t qualify as handicapped, although I would agree that it should. Before the hate mail rolls in about people who own tricked out Camaros, let me add that this lousy behavior crosses all social lines. It just happened to be a tricked out Camaro in this instance.

The abuse of Handicapped Parking spaces has been in my crawl for years. Last year, in my little town, a guy was physically assaulted because he complained to a person parking in a Handicapped Parking Zone. Picture that. A guy parks in a Handicapped Parking space then gets out of the car a beats the shit out of someone complaining about his misuse of the space. I tell you, mental midget is not a handicap.

In this state blue and white placards are issued to those in need and is hung from the rear view mirror. There are probably some instances of those placards being misused, passed from family member to family member or friend to friend. It’s hard to tell if the person using the placard is handicapped or not. They could have gotten (with apologies to R.E. III) a legal placard because they have a bad heart or something equally invisible, but a handicap, of sorts. I say of sorts because I can’t figure why walking would be contraindicated in the case of a bad or weakened heart. Seems like walking would be a good thing and the handicapped placard a bad thing.

The bottom line is that we have all seen these limited spaces abused by the selfish and important. And you get angry every time you see it. But we pause because we can’t be sure, or we might get punched, and move on. But it bugs us. It bugs us so much that when we leave the store we look to see if the offender is still parked there. Am I the only one that does that?

If you are a person who abuses the Handicapped Parking spaces, please stop it. Everyone notices when you do and everyone is disgusted at you. Everyone looks at you with disdain and immediately get the feeling that you are someone they don’t want to know. Please choose being a help over being a hindrance.

If you would only choose to walk an extra twenty feet look at the benefits. You feel better about yourself, we feel better about you, the handicapped are better provided for and we have one less thing to annoy us. Sounds like a win/win if you choose to walk an extra twenty feet. Remember the best line from the movie Forrest Gump: Stupid Is As Stupid Does.