Cannabis re-legalization could once more bring equality to the playing field and it might be the only answer to a rising ecological catastrophe in the works. Below we’ll touch base on some of the benefits of legalization;

More Jobs, Less Criminals

Think about how many people are being arrested due to drug prohibition. If the action of consuming drugs were not criminal you’d be left with consumers. These consumers would have a product they are consuming. By legalizing the consumption, production, distribution and retail of drugs such as cannabis you create a new industry which would turn “criminals” into active participants in society. They would pay taxes, they would contribute to the betterment of society by merely continuing what they are doing, except in a legal environment.

Some people would create big business which would increase the job market, revenue for the state and much more. People would be able to ask for loans, student loans, credit and actually benefit the whole of society as opposed to being a slave worker for a select few who benefit from the Prison Industrial Complex

Global Warming and other Ecological mishaps

How many times do you read about another forest being wiped out or about another species in danger of extinction? We need forests to help regulate the global climate, produce oxygen, clean our air, water and essentially sustain life on this planet. These “life sustaining” ecosystems are being pillaged by the timber industry when we could replace it all with Hemp. Not only does hemp produce more for less it also contributes more to helping out the environment than timber. We could let our forests grow and simply switch to Hemp which would create more jobs, a stronger more sustainable economy and of course help us not die due to lack of oxygen.

Medicine for all

People would be able to cure them from a wide range of diseases. This won’t meant that the health industry would disappear but it would provide people with an option. Think about cancer for a second; people could choose to use one method, another or to combine them.

But the odds are that when people young and old start consuming cannabis products in their food, raw leafs and so forth that their overall health will increase reducing the amount of times they would depend on the health system.

Conclusion

This is just the tip of the iceberg and as we continue to move towards cannabis legalization we’ll only see more benefits appear. Legalization is imminent.

It wasn’t until 1937 that cannabis was made illegal and since then the world as a whole has witnessed the destruction that was associated with this action. Below are some of the most compelling reasons why to end marijuana prohibition and to legalize cannabis once more.

1. The issue of Drug Prohibition is the Issue of Freedom

People need to understand that what the term “drug prohibition” truly entails is the oppression of certain actions not deemed “moral” in the eyes of a select few. Whether the substance is dangerous for consumption or not the point still remains; An external entity is prohibiting you from committing a certain action that does not affect anyone other than yourself. In this particular case the substance actually benefits the individual who consumes it, yet still you are not allowed to “choose”; Choice being the fundamental cornerstone of freedom. Without the ability to choose…one is not free.

Some people do hate your freedom…but they don’t live in the Middle East.

1. In times of Ecological Crisis it is the Only Way to Rectify our Transgressions to Earth

There is no argument when one claims that this world is in a dire state. Pollution runs rampant, every now and then we hear of a major oil spill brutalizing complete ecosystems for the mere purpose of filling the pockets of the greedy.

The world was moving in a completely different direction prior to 1937. Hemp was deemed to be the “crop of the future” due to its vast versatility and ease of production. With cannabis legalization we would stop the insatiable hunger for timber, oil and the imminent destruction of our planet. Hemp can replace and improve vast sectors of society while promoting sound ecological practices. If we want a future we definitely need to legalize marijuana.

1. Drastically Decrease Crime

The first argument is quite simple. Since most of the police resources are being squandered on drug prohibition the mere fact of taking that off of their list of “things to do” we can finally have the police do their jobs again; Stopping crime!

Re-direct the inflated budget to focus on crimes such as; rape, murder, human trafficking, pedophilia, extortion, political corruption and so on.

Statistically speaking in places such as Portugal they saw an 80% decrease in crime due to their new approach to drug education and tolerance. Portugal decriminalized all drugs meaning that even heroin is legal there. Yet strangely less people are doing drugs and crime simply plummeted.

1. Liberate the Slaves

You might not be aware on how many people have been jailed for marijuana possession, trafficking and so on but it’s a lot. In fact the United States jails nearly 1 million people annually for mere marijuana related crimes. These people in turn are forced to work long hours for a mere $.45 cents per hour.

Marijuana Prohibition is modern day institutionalized slavery hiding behind the “correctional institutions of America”. It’s also no coincidence that the majority of these arrests by a great statistical margin are people of African descent.

1. Marijuana is a Medicine

It should be considered a crime to withhold medicine from people when you know it provides benefit or even cure any disease. Cannabis on the other hand has a lot of medicinal uses for a wide array of diseases and in some cases even cures cancer.

Marijuana provides relief to some of the more serious diseases on our planet yet this medicine is being withheld from the suffering community of medical patients. Not only should healthcare be free for everyone on this planet but the ability to grow your own medicine should be a fundamental human right.

Conclusion

Prohibition is a crime against the planet and humanity. We should not stand for this injustice any longer. Politicians are playing with the lives of the people and the future of the world. It is now time to say no more and to finally legalize cannabis once and for all. It is time that all of those drug warriors and pale faced politicians answer for their crimes against humanity and it’s time that the average citizen stops being average and takes back what was stolen from them through lies, misinformation and mass manipulation.

Marijuana in Hawaii: Strong Public Support

New polling data on marijuana legalization in Hawaii was released in a joint press conference on Thursday by the Drug Policy Action Group, the ACLU and Q Mark Research. 81% of Hawaii state residents support medical marijuana with 78% supporting the issuance of licenses for dispensaries to facilitate access to the medicine.

Opinion on marijuana legalization was favored by 57% and opposed by 40% with a margin of error of about 4%.  Legalization without reference to taxes and regulations was not offered as an alternative by the poll takers. Other questions showed poll respondents having strong support for fines under decriminalization or taxes under legalization to be earmarked towards the prevention of drug use, public education and other popular ideas.

Two other findings included 65% of poll respondents agreeing that the war on drugs was too costly and that the position of a legislator on marijuana legalization was a vote moving issue for about 55% of respondents. In this last case 33% of respondents indicated a greater likelihood of supporting a candidate who favored reforming marijuana laws while 22% would be more likely to oppose such a candidate.

CannaMed, a medical marijuana recommendation evaluation center has opened its doors today, establishing the facility as the first of its kind in the state of Massachusetts. Voters in Massachusetts approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes on November 6th 2012, and the law went on the books January 1st, 2013. The Department of Health still has until May 1st 2013 to decide on legislation regarding the complete workings of marijuana dispensaries and medical marijuana cards.

CannaMed of Boston is a medical marijuana doctors office that assists marijuana state residents with a qualified condition obtain a medical marijuana card as an alternative health treatment option. Many patients are looking beyond conventional pharmaceutical pills and are instead looking for more natural methods. In order to be legally permitted to grow cannabis plants or carry medical marijuana while having protection form incarceration, one must have a medical condition as listed under Massachusetts state law and be seen by a marijuana doctor who can confirm your diagnosis. From here, the application will go the state where they will have finally say for medical marijuana eligibility.

The LBPD states that it is strongly urging all medical marijuana doctors and dispensaries to
voluntarily cease their operations and that any dispensaries that continue to stay in business
will be the target of arrests and closures.  Police spokeswoman Nancy Pratt reiterates that more raids are highly likely until all the city’s remaining facilities are shut down. The recent raids come as a result of increasing pressure from local authorities and community advisers to shut down any attempt to use Long Beach California as home to many of the states medical marijuana access points. Long Beach has been considering a ban on medical marijuana despite having legalized collectives a few years earlier.

Officials are also moving beyond the medpot distributors to take on the property owners who
rent them. On October 23rd, the City Council voted to revoke the business license of a property
owner who authorities say has been allowing medicinal cannabis collectives to operate at his
strip mall. It will be an ongoing battle because many residents of Long Beach believe that the
county’s ordinance bannng medical marijuana dispensaries is unconstitutional. California law
states that qualified patients with a valid California Marijuana card can cultivate pot for
medical purposes and not be subject to criminal penalties.

These unfortunate state of circumstances may come as a result of much misinformation
surrounding medical marijuana  news and its use to alleviate the pain and discomfort for many
patients and their illnesses. Many residents still rely on the disinformation propagated by the
media. Reefer Madness, they believe will be the result of individuals experimenting with the
green herb and entering into mania, depression and psychotic states of delusion. The Gateway
Drug is another highly mentioned negative regarding the legalized medicinal use of marijuana as
some believe it will lead to harder drugs. The Gateway Drug myth has long been used by
opponents to shield their feeble minds from the hard truths and benefits that marijuana
provides. There has been absolutely no research to provide any shred of credibility to the
claims of the Gateway drug myth.

But the truth is, Medical Marijuana in Long Beach California should continue to be a right
that qualified patients have to alleviate their pain. There are many credible medical marijuana
doctors and medical marijuana evaluation centers in Long Beach that pride themselves on delivering
professional and intimate care to their patients. Sometimes, pharmaceutical drugs are not
adequate at dealing with the complex nature of illness and can cause more damage and pain than
ever intended. Those that support the right to safe access to medical marijuana should not
allow the disingenuous leaders of the Long Beach California city council to take away the right
of safe medical marijuana access.

With the approval of the voters of North Dakota, the proposed marijuana initiative would allow someone who suffers from severe or debilitating conditions and illnesses to use marijuana with a licensed physicians’ recommendation. Among the listed reasons for being eligible to use medical marijuana in North Dakota, those that apply would be cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, glaucoma and other illnesses as examples of debilitating conditions.

North Dakota State Republican, Steve Zaiser, serves as the chairman of the initiative effort. Zaiser said he believes that people who suffer from chronic pain should be granted the right to use medical marijuana if it relieves them from discomfort. Zaiser and Dave Schwartz, who serves as campaign director for Compassionate Care, are heading the proposal’s sponsoring committee, which is composed of twenty-seven members who are mostly from the eastern side of North Dakota.

Several years ago, Zaiser suffered from a series of strokes that have left him in a state of constant pain and has said that it is not his motivation for sponsoring this medical marijuana initiative. Zaiser said, “Marijuana has proven that it has helped people and doctors will testify to that effect. I don’t want any more North Dakotans to suffer unnecessarily. In regards to his own pain from his serious of strokes, Zaiser said, “I do have chronic pain, and if it were to be passed and my doctor were to suggest that I could perhaps use it, I would consider doing that.” Steve Zaiser had also said that he has heard nothing but good things from the states that have permitted the use of medical marijuana.

The twenty-two page initiative was submitted to Secretary of State Al Jaeger on Tuesday, which would make it legal for North Dakota residents to possess up to two and a half ounces of marijuana for medicinal purposes. The initiative states that those who qualify for medical marijuana could obtain the drug from a state-licensed dispensary, or they are permitted to grow a limited supply on their own for personal use.

As reported by the National Conference of State Legislatures, Montana and sixteen other states have already made laws that allow the medical use of marijuana. North Dakota allows its residents to put proposed state laws and constitutional amendments directly to a vote if the initiative’s supporters can gather enough of a following.

The Judiciary Committee approved the bill, entitled A1465, with very few objections from the jam-packed hearing room in the Statehouse. The bill would replace criminal penalties with fines for those caught with fewer than fifteen grams of marijuana, or about thirty joints. The bill’s prime sponsor, Republican Michael Patrick Carroll out of Morris County, said, “Some acts harm society and they warrant the intervention of police, prosecutors and perhaps even incarceration. Other acts warrant at best, a spanking, and this seems to be one of those situations.”

Supporters of the bill included defense attorneys, a clergyman, a retired corrections offer, a college instructor, and a representative from a drug addiction prevention group. Supports argued that individuals arrested for the possession of marijuana, face far worse consequences than the crime deserves, such as difficulty obtaining a job or attempting to qualify for housing. In New Jersey last year, there were 22,000 people who were arrested for the possession of marijuana. Even though drug use rates are about equivalent to each other, far more African Americans face jail time than Caucasians, which perpetuates a vast racial injustice as well.

Candice Singer, a research analyst from the New Jersey chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, said, “These long-term consequences are unjust and expensive. The police manpower utilized for these arrests is costly. It is beyond dispute that a criminal record interferes with one’s ability to maintain employment. This not only hurts the individual and the individual’s family, but it harms the economy and the state, preventing residents from becoming employed and paying income taxes.”

Currently, first offenses are punishable by a $150 fine, second offense a fine of $200, and a third offense with a fine of $500. The fines may be waived if the person who is charged can demonstrate “extreme hardship”, according to the bill, A1465. Fines would be collected and processed by municipal court. The law now allows a judge to impose a six-month jail term and a fine of $1,000 when a person is convicted of marijuana possession.

Bruce Hummer of the New Jersey Prevention Network, an association of treatment professionals, said decriminalizing marijuana would send a mixed message to our youth, who would be more likely to use the drug if they perceived it as less harmful and widely accepted by the community. However, a retired state corrections offer, Harry Camisa of Yardville, said for the sake of teenagers he has seen traumatized and abuse in prison, the committee simply must support the bill.

Camisa said, “I have seen firsthand the devastating effects on these young kids who are sent to jail for what I consider a minor offense. I always felt bad for the very young ones because by the time they asked for protective custody, they had already been beaten with a lock in a sock, stabbed or sodomized.” Bottom line, the state of New Jersey must support this bill.

Social Democratic Justice Minister Morten Bodskov wrote in a letter to the Copenhagen city council that the government was rejecting the city’s request because it feared it would lead to an increase in the availability and use of cannabis due to being linked to a variety of side effects. Due to the extensive list of side effects that have been associated with cannabis, city officials believed that it would be an unwise decision. Bodskov said, “Because of this, the government will not permit the experiment.”

The rejection of this request was met with great disappointment from members of Copenhagen’s city council, which included the deputy mayor for social affairs, Mikkel Warming (Enhedslisten). Warming argued that this legislation was the only solution to the crime that is created as a direct result from the illicit drug trades. The councilman and deputy mayor said, “It’s very disappointing. The prohibitive policies we have operated under in Denmark for so many years have not worked. You can still buy hash on street corners across the city which also means the hash is mixed up with other harder drugs. Criminals also pocket about two billion kroner a year from the trade.” Two billion Danish kroner would be the equivalent of about $340,800,000 United States dollars.

However, Mikkel Warming said he would still continue to work for marijuana legalization and counseled patience, making note that it took a decade for Danish parliament to approve a supervised injection room for hard drug users. Councilman Las Aslan Rasmussen, a pro-legalization legislator, said, “Legalization would limit the gang conflict and it would also give us access to the group of users who have been left to the criminal environment.” Rasmussen hoped that the council would take the city’s proposal seriously due to the fact that they have support from nearly 80% of the city council. He said, “Copenhagen has a serious problem because the gang conflict is a result of the trade in marijuana. The gangs turn over more money than 7-11.”

With the rejection of this proposal and actions taken by the Danish government, black market profits of Denmark hash slingers and marijuana dealers will remain safe and untouched for the time being.

I-502, more formally addressed as Washington State Initiative Measure No. 502, would license and regulate marijuana production, distribution and possession for persons over the age of twenty-one and also remove state-law criminal and civil penalties for activities that are authorized such as taxed marijuana sales and earmarked marijuana-related revenue. In six months, the November 6^th general election ballot for Washington will feature the appearance of Washington State Initiative Measure No. 502.

The measure taken by I-502 would remove state-law prohibitions against producing, processing and selling marijuana all subject to licensing and regulation by the liquor control board and also allow limited possession of marijuana by persons aged twenty-one and over. Initial licenses shall be $250 with an annual renewal fee of $1000. The imposition of a 25% excise tax on the wholesale and retail sale of marijuana will also come into effect, earmarking revenue for purposes that include substance-abuse prevention, research, education and healthcare. Laws prohibiting driving under the influence will also be amended in order to include the maximum thresholds of THC blood concentration levels, operating in a similar fashion to the .08 threshold for alcohol to keep impaired drivers off the roads.

The balance of this 25% excise tax as well as all retail sales tax would go to the state’s general fund and all of its local budgets. Preliminary analysis of the initiative published by the Washington state Office of Financial Management estimates that I-502 would generate at least $560 million in new tax revenue annually.

Republican sponsor Mary Lou Dickerson said in a press release, “The hundreds of millions of Washington dollars currently flowing to the marijuana black market each year should be redirected to legitimate businesses and taxed to support vital government services.” Dickerson has a history with marijuana reform, introducing marijuana legalization bills amongst legislature in 2010 and again in 2011, before co-sponsoring Washington State Initiative Measure No. 502 with nine other community leaders including Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes and retired public health physician Kim Marie Thorburn. Dickerson also calls compare to current laws against cannabis as similar to the times of Prohibition in the 1930’s and says, “The only people who really win under this system are the gangsters and other criminals.”

Another longtime advocate for medical marijuana protection and marijuana reform, Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles, points to all the benefits for patients by saying, “Under Initiative 502, patients would finally have protection from arrest for possessing marijuana. They would also have safe access to quality-controlled marijuana locally grown and sold by licensed Washington businesses.” Kohl-Welles is a big name amongst the sixteen sponsors endorsing the initiative, chairing the Senate Labor, Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee as well as the Senate Judiciary, Rules, Ways and Means Committee.

Although Washington State Initiative Measure No. 502 doesn’t change Washington’s medical marijuana law, it enables patients to receive new arrest protection and regulated access to quality-controlled, locally grown marijuana in Washington. If I-502′s debut on the November general election ballot goes as well as planned, Washington can then truly call themselves “The Evergreen State”.

Marijuana in the Netherlands by technicality, is illegal, but has been sold openly for decades in small amounts in designated cafes known as “coffee shops” under the country’s notorious tolerance policy.

Under a newly acquired policy change, as of May 1^st, only holders of what is referred to as a “weed pass” are supposed to be allowed to purchase marijuana within three different southern provinces in the Netherlands. Due to the regulations set in place under this change of policy, non-residents are not entitled to be eligible for the “weed pass”, which essentially means that tourists are banned.

In Maastricht, these new Dutch laws to snub out the sale of cannabis to foreign tourists kicked in Tuesday and were met as expected with great defiance. Maastricht, a short drive from both the Belgium and German border, was filled with protesters donning marijuana-leave decorated banners and signs with slogans that read “Dealers Wanted”. In Maastricht’s main square, hundreds of demonstrators staged sit-ins and openly smoked joints alongside a handcrafted, six foot fake spliff. Maastricht’s mayor, Onno Hoes, was presented with a petition that was signed from about 300 coffee shops and various outlets asking for the ban to be removed.

Even the city’s infamous Easy Going coffee shop closed its doors at one point in the day to all customers in protest, claiming that police would just simply have to deal with selling marijuana on the streets occurring instead of behind closed doors. Marc Josemans, owner of the Easy Going coffee shop and head of Maastricht’s coffee shop association, told his clientele, “People, you can come inside without a cannabis card. We are open to everybody.”

The new Netherlands marijuana ban policy isn’t supposed to go into effect in Amsterdam until next year, and there’s a chance it might not ever go into effect. The city of Amsterdam opposes the idea and on top of that, the Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition collapsed last week, which raised many questions about whether a new governing body will preserve the marijuana policy change after elections are held in September.

The new law, originally introduced in January, will allow coffee shops to only admit a maximum of 2,000 registered members whom posses a local address. Politicians in favor of the law say that this measure was taken in order to stomp out crime in relations to drug trades and the limitation of cannabis consumption.

Dutch authorities have also set up large signs over the weekend as well announcing the ban under a new slogan that reads “new rules, no drugs,” while municipality presence has been increased on both sides of the border.