Following the Money

If you have been following the story on Colorado's legalization of marijuana, a lot has happened over the last few weeks, and quickly.

We now have scientists and doctors; popping up with medical studies regarding the harm it causes, all of a sudden they know facts while for years the public had been told there was "not enough" research on the effects of using this plant. If you scroll the major news networks it's almost funny how folks are scrambling on both sides of the debate. Sorry folks, the horse is out of the barn, too late now.

If the Federal government was going to stop this whole thing, they would have been waiting for the folks leaving the markets in Colorado, shopping bags in hand. We got ourselves into a big giant hole that would only grow bigger in trying to stop this from being legalized. All the people who lost jobs or couldn't get hired because of a possession charge costs the government way more than it was worth. When police officers and the courts reveal how much time and money is spent on this and requested something be done about it, we see many eyes opening.

New York, a huge populated state is a good example. The Division of Justice Services there has great statics on how much marijuana arrests (possession) costs the people of New York.

"These marijuana possession arrests cost the taxpayers of New York a great deal of money. The arrests, incarcerating and prosecutions currently cost $1,500 to $2,000 or more per arrest. In recent years this amounts to $75 million or more a year". (Harry Levine, The Brooklyn Rail October 2011).

According to the Denver Post, the number of marijuana arrests have gone down over 70%. It makes sense that most law abiding citizens will pay the price of the state regulated substance than to going to a drug dealer taking the chance of being robbed and getting arrested. This so-called "big crime surge" isn't happening although many who are on the other side of the dispute all coming up with anything that happens in Colorado, marijuana related.

I know will get flack from this, but show me official facts from the gain of making marijuana illegal except for private jails and drug dealers, I will take this under consideration.

I have been watching the big news channels and big newspapers, reporting how big bankers and investors (our conservative 1% of course) are taking this as a new opportunity to make new billionaires and the many ways these plants can be used in food as well health products.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the next year or so, but it is not going away anytime soon.