[PROCON]

Disclaimer: PROCON does not endorse this picture and has been pot-free for over 30 years!

Just a couple of beers now and then, donchaknow!

[edcoil]

Cops=unions=less work=more pay.

[funfan]

What happens when they go on strike?

[Dallas59]

Lol...what American productivity needs....more employees getting high on the job.

[Tzimisce]

Taxing pot isn’t going to save California.

[Bernard Marx]

It’s virtually legal already in CA. I see local newspaper ads for free home delivery of “medical” marijuana.

[I_Like_Spam]

The entire idea that marijuana is somehow going to save California-or any other state- fiscally is actually pretty absurd when you think about it.

The crop costs next to nothing to grow, the major expense is keeping it from the prying eyes of law enforcement or other criminals seeking to steal it.

If there is a big tax on it, a tax big enough to make a dent in a state budget, it will still be a tempting racket to grow untaxed pot.

If you think lots more stoners will be a point of positivity, by all means support legalization. But don’t fool yourself into thinking that it will do anything for state budgets or reduce the costs of law enforcement.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

As California is about to go over a cliff, Californians are running away and escaping into la-la-land via their bongs.

Will the US Treasury bail out California? Who will buy the huge amount of US debt needed to pour money into the California sinkhole?

Unlike the banks (which are actually paying back TARP), this will be like Fannie and Freddie only worse - a neverending bailout that sucks the wealth of an entire nation down an endless black hole.

[PGalt]

The marginalization of the individual by the union...and the individual’s rational mind by the drugs...well they go hand in hand...submit to the gang...submit to the false reality...the garbage floating around in your head.

[mia]

That’s all we need to keep people in a state of half-consciousness and apathy. Then they don’t have to think and don’t care if they do. Anything goes.

[Othniel]

A lot of the arguments in favor of legalization are in two camps. There are the people who need medical pot to help with cancer and pain issues. While this is a valid argument at face value, my brain says, "Well, why can't they isolate the part of the plant that helps in that area? If THC is what they need to stave off the side effects of chemo, why not distill it into pill form? Wouldn't that be better than letting the patients get lit, and have all those other things in their systems, you know, like the parts that make you act stupid, kill your ambition, and think you're the greatest thing since peanut butter?"

The other argument stems from the "we can stop the drug cartel" line, which says that legalizing it will bring in tax revenues, etc, while taking away the cartels' power. Again, my pesky brain wonders, "Why don't they close the fricking border, then all those persons bringing it in won't, we can deal with the thousands of farms on national lands, and deport the criminals? What's wrong with hamstringing the gangs with *gasp* THE LAWS ALREADY ON THE BOOKS?"

[Fresh Wind]

A stoned citizen is a compliant citizen.