OpenGov - Open Government Brainstorm

it is time for the us goverment to make 16 billion dollars in tax revenue of this wonderful plant

Let's consider the mounting of debt and

the impact on the economy. It would make sence to stop spending on

controlling marijuana and collect revenue from it to offset the devaluation of our currency. It's easy to see the impact of the lowering of the

value of our money. Look at the escalation of fuel prices. It's taking more money to buy the same fuel. Not much different than what the Germans experienced after WWI. We have an opportunity to save our economy. Just legalize marijuana. The money we'd save on enforcement and the revenue would make

a huge dent in the staggering debt we've been accumulating. We need to stop printing so much money and stop spending

money on the War on Drugs.

I'm a republican, voted for Ron Paul because of his position on Marijuana legalization and sound fiscal policy. He

made sence to me.

Actually there should not be such a thing as illegal drugs or substances at all. The existence of this category impedes learning of chemistry, and in cases of drugs tends to feed criminal cartels money. There should be principles that false claims about drugs or the like are forbidden and perhaps criminal, but for adults, people should be able to ingest ground glass if they like...just so nobody tries to portray such a thing as other than likely to kill the experimenter in such. Leave the government out of this and let people have responsibility for their choices. I can see ensuring that the effects of drugs are described properly and accurately, with serious consequences about lying, but given this, adults should be able to choose what they will. (Mind, I have never used any illegal drugs, but disagree with ruining lives over use of such or with turning them into sources of other crimes and sources of vast money to drug cartels. If drugs were legal, the $10 (or whatever) bag of cocaine might cost 10 cents and shootings etc. to get money for it would vanish.)

The only reason pot-heads go to jail is because they plea bargain out of their raping/carjacking/murder charges.

Moreover, not all pot-heads are tweakers, but every tweaker is a pot-head. See the trajectory -- or is the logic too difficult for a pot-head to follow?

I'm a 41 year old white male and I vote and I pay taxes.I'm sick and tired of seeing people go to jail,lose their children,lose their property and lose their job's just because they choose to use cannabis either for medicinal purposes or for recreational purposes.For all of you who read this with pot nazi eyes,I want to let you know that I'm not a user who want's to get high.I have a job that engages in the facist practice of random drug testing and to protect my job as well as my professional license,I choose not to use.I vote according to my belief's and I believe that American's are at a point of time in our history that we can use cannabis and still be a usefull and productive society.I vote according to my belief's.

I can see you are totally clueless rosalie. Why don't you call our alcoholic congress men murderers, because it is a known fact many of them are. Just ask the Kennedy's. Sorry your in the minority on this one. BTW WTF is a tweaker?

It would be impossible for the federal government to tax pot because of all the illegal importation, and this is a drug that can be domestically grown. Thus the government would make no money out of it. If people were allowed to smoke pot we would be a nation of lazy bums. We would be repeating the past of china and the Opium Wars.

If all pot smokers are lazy then they would be too lazy to grow their own. Another comment that makes sense.

David,

I would like to tell you that I'm educated and I have a high paying job who had to implement random drug testing not because of a high percentage of on the job users,but because our government saw fit to penalize my industry if they didn't.Prior to this new policy,only me as well as few others use pot.But we did our job as well and in many cases better than our non-user or alcoholic coworkers did.I asertain from your comment that you know abosolutely nothing about cannabis except from what you've been programmed to believe.Opium is a drug that has a definate medicinal use but as a recreational drug,it would be a plague on society.While cannabis on the other hand has never killed anyone and that can be verified by checking with the bureau of vital statistics in Washington DC.Plus,if all pot smokers were lazy bum's,then this country would have collasped years ago.Your comment was good,but uneducated and substanciated.

Not all pot smokers are gang banging car-jacking parasites!Many of us and in fact most of us are hard working tax-paying citizens who are sick and tired of being treated as criminals.Abortion is 100X's more destructive than pot use ever could be.Wake up because you are going to one day live in a USA that accepts not only cannabis and all the tax dollars,but the users as well.The gang bang/car jacking pot smoker comment was a display of total ignorance.Or was it racial predjudice hiden behind a self percieved moral high ground?

Prohibition is a violation of the 9th amendment.

I wish people would stop asking government to legalize what they have no genuine authority to prohibit. You give the laws faith and credit they do not possess.

Tell government to stop violating your 9th amendment rights, and remove all faulty legislation from our faces.

It's a fact that ever since the 18th amendment,our government has never seen fit to legally empower it's self to declare or enforce any malum prohibitum law.I'm sure that the Supreme Court is all too aware of this,but in regard's to drug's like cocaine,heroin,LSD and methamphetamine.There really need's to be law's to prevent the manufacture,sale and possession of these known poison's.There really need's to be another amendment to our constitution regarding these drug's,and there need's to be one that legally protect's the right's of responsible adult's who choose to use cannabis.

The only way for the government to be able to able to tax marijuana is for them to prohibit personal use cultivation of over 6 plant's.Plus the laws against trafficking as well as engaging in a on going criminal enterprise should remain as they are.People think that in Amsterdam,you can legally grow and possess as much as you want to,but that simply isn't so.If the government here is ever kind enough to legalize marijuana.The standard amount for sale,use and possession should be from 5-10 grams per person,and cultivation of over 6 plants should be a felony.If someone burns down a apartment complex because of indoor cultivation,then they need to go to prison.To legalize without regulation would be a disaster.Many laws should forever remain in place to protect those who don't wish to be affected by marijuana use,either at home or in the workplace.

If someone burns down an apartment complex because of indoor cultivation of tomatoes, should they still go to jail?

You can't get high on tomatoes sir.People who need cannabis for medical reasons should be able to go and buy it without having to go through the long process of cultivating enough to help them.As for people who want to grow indoors for recreational purposes and end up burning a whole apartment complex down and possibly killing someone deserve to go to jail because of their selfishness and total disregard for other people's lives or property.This very thing occured a few years ago here in Texas and an elderly woman died as well as a off duty nurse who was sleeping.Yes! If a person grows pot or tomatoes or cooks meth in a apartment complex and they cause a fire that either kills or destroy's property should go to jail.People can buy tomatoes in a store or market.If marijuana ever becomes legal,then we will be able to go and buy it as well.How would you feel if your apartment burned down and one or all of your family member's burned to death all because of some heat lamp that was used to grow marijuana?,,,,,Or tomatoes,or meth?

Liberty is a very selfish thing, indeed. That's why we built nation founded on the idea.

(not that we're living it)

For far too many years have the right wing christian conservatives ran this country like a "theocracy".Sure,it's a free country,but only for those who go to church a behave like christian's even if they're not.All prohibition laws are base on so called christian morality.Texas is one of the worst example of the reality of what I'm saying,but Louisiana is by far the most extreme.That state is ran by baptist,pentacostals and catholics and is one of the most racially divided states I've ever lived in.If marijuana is ever going to be legalized,all user's and people of like mind's are going to have to stand up and show our president that we are just as powerful as body of voters as the right wing christian's.Make no mistake about it,the christians have always been the true law makers of this country.But one thing is for certain,public opinion for supporting the legalization of marijuana grows more and more everyday,and it will continue to do so.Our government has to see that if legalizing marijuana would help to curb America's thirst for alcohol,a deadly but legal poison,then it would be a blessing indeed.I do not hate christians and as a matter of fact I consider myself one.I just hate how they have always tried to shove their world view and morals down the throats of Americans via legislation.Far too many of them refuse to understand the fact that people have been using marijuana since the dawn of time and they will continue to do so despite all the efforts of our government and law enforcement agencies.They also fail to see that the harder our government fights drugs and refuses to legalize and truly control them,the more and more wealthy and powerful the drug cartels of Mexico and columbia are becoming.It's easy for a preacher to stand before his congragation and preach against legalizing marijuana,because the gang violence hasn't reached his town ,,,yet.But the blood shed has already started to spill into this country.When will this insanity stop and when will sanity and compassion prevail?When our government and 70% of our citizen's finally decide to legalize some of the drugs the cartels make million's of dollars selling to the USA.

In the small town where I live, the police use the marijuana laws to harass, intimidate, torture and drive away growth and business. They feel justified in arresting people, using strip searches to intimidate women, polarizing the community and distracting hard working citizens who are innocent of all but the 'crime' of personal consumption of a mild, soothing herb.

I guess it was ok for the chosen one to smoke it but no one else.