Pubdate: Tue, 14 Apr 2009
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Page: 13A
Copyright: 2009 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: William Preston Robertson
Note: William Preston Robertson is a writer and filmmaker who lives 
in Sacramento.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)

A MIND UNLEASHED BY THOUGHTS OF LEGAL POT

I don't smoke pot. As a teenager I tried it once with a group of
friends. After that I became the only teen I've ever heard of who
didn't experience peer pressure to use drugs.

When offered a joint by a non- acquaintance, my pot-smoking pals would
snap awake from their stupors and scramble to stop the joint-sharing
Samaritan.

"Um, heh-heh, that's not such good idea, man," they'd tell him.
"Bill's 'naturally high.' "

I don't think they meant it in a John Denver, Rocky Mountain, "let's
see if high-altitude sickness gives you any buzz" sort of way. There
was too much fear and self-preservation in my stoner friends' voices
for that. But it was still nice to have friends looking out for my
welfare. I guess.

This is just to say I don't have a personal stake in the topic before
us, which is namely, legalizing pot, a.k.a. grass, tea, giggle weed,
muggles, boo boo bama. Or, as it's known in the tough part of town,
and by that I mean, of course, the state Legislature: marijuana.

Recently, state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, proposed AB
390, a bill that would decriminalize marijuana and allow it to be sold
- - and taxed - openly in California to adults 21 and older. The
reasoning, as I understand it, is that since California is looking for
new funding sources, it might not be a bad idea to legitimize what is
already one of the larger agricultural industries in the state and
give California, as it were, a piece of the action.

Economically - and I say this with the kind of credibility that only a
man who still counts on his fingers can have - AB 390 makes good sense
to me. There's no doubt that supply and demand for the product already
exist. Indeed, the muggles market has shown a long-term stability
through good times and bad. Which is more than you can say for that
speculative lemming stampede called the "Dot Com" bubble. One needn't
worry about any "Pot Com" bubble.

This isn't just a simple issue of new tax revenue, either. Which, on a
personal level is a bit disappointing. I mean, who wouldn't want to
see Republicans stalwartly defending stoners against tax-and-spend
liberals? No, the impact of a legalized boo boo bama industry reaches
much deeper into the economy than mere taxes.

Online, I found that pot cultivation is every bit as sophisticatedly
developed a business and art as winemaking. Web sites presented
comprehensive lists of the latest cultivated herb strains with photos
and eloquent descriptions detailing bud size, aroma and nuances of the
induced high.

They had names that sounded less like wines, though, and more like
crosses between tomato varieties and failed local bands from the
1970s: Silver Haze, Early Misty, God Bud, Turtle Power. And each year,
these cultivated herbs compete for the world-famous Cannabis Cup of
Holland at an international festival that draws discerning cannabis
connoisseurs from around the globe.

Translated to the California economy, the implications are enormous.
 From agribusiness, to tourism and convention businesses, to Cheetos,
Twinkie and pizza sales. It boggles the mind.

Muggles money - doobie dollars, if you will - would start flowing
like, well, wine. Overnight the economy would rebound as tea tycoons
and boo boo bama billionaires would do what the wealthy always do:
share their wealth and give back to the state. Is it too far-fetched
to envision the California Skunk Weed Arena at Cal Expo?

Our biggest competitor, of course, will be Holland. Concerned about
"brain drain" in their industry, the Dutch won't take it lying down.
They'll try to lure away our talent with their more affordable health
care and legal prostitution. We in turn will have only the counter
offer of our VA health system and the promise of a magnetic levitation
train from Disneyland to the Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Nevada. It'll be
a tough fight, but I have faith in the California entrepreneurial
drive to sell something that doesn't actually exist.

Well. OK. Obviously I'm being wacky. But at least you understand the
kind of mental machinations that frightened my stoner friends.

Bolstering an economy with a vice industry, whether that vice is
marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes, or gambling, is complicated. There are
economic benefits to be sure, but there are economic detriments as
well. Vices will exist whether legal or illegal, and someone will be
making money from them. And whether they're legal or illegal, their
societal impact will exist in their impact on health care costs,
insurance rates and crime.

We want our vices, yet we feel bad about that. And so to compensate,
one vice becomes acceptable while another is not. But why? Why is one
drug better than another? I'm just asking. Like I said, I don't smoke
pot. These days I don't even drink.

Here, to me, is the ultimate irony. Cigarettes are legal, but they
give you cancer. And in the last throes of death from that disease,
one of the ways to ease the pain is by smoking an illegal drug. A drug
called boo boo bama.

Maybe that's its real value to the California budget
crisis.

Powerful stuff. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake