California has got to be the most screwed up State

Dom · Post by **Dom** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:17 am

This is not fishing related,well if you smoke while you fish then maybe. For years/ decades the good fight has been raging to legalize Pot and now that California is in a budget crisis they are talking about making 14 billion a year of tax revenue and LEGALIZING IT! Washington is OK with it !!!!!!

I am all for it but the way they are doing it just pisses me off were criminals for smoking it but now that they need our $$$$ we are not???????????? For those that know me know I dont drink I cant handle the drinking my head just dont agree with it and never has. But back in my younger years I grew and have been known to smoke a bowl here and there.

anyway I want all the biz owners and bosses on this sight to give your input on this, how will yall react to the legalization of pot? In my profession I am drug tested on random therefore I gave up smoking years ago but not becuase I wanted to I was forced even though I would never smoke while working but THC stays in your system from 6 months to a year so even if I wanted to smoke on my time I would still test pos for pot if I did.

Will this do away with testing for THC? becuase if legalized it would be discrimnation to fire me or anyone else for testing pos for pot at work. the argument would be yea I smoked on my day off but never at work or been under the influence while at work.

I am glad to hear finally after all these years people are finally seeing there is no harm from smoking pot and if its legalized I will be looking for partners to get rich not from the pot itself but from the production of Hemp for industrial use just like back in the OLD days 20's-40's

Skeeterman · Post by **Skeeterman** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 5:31 am

Personally I think it stupid we have enough problems as it is with drugs and alcihol we don't need it.

Greg_Cornish · Post by **Greg_Cornish** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 7:36 am

I don't agree with the medical Marijuana program at all. Ever since is began, people have been shooting kids grabbing their plants or the kids wanting it have been shooting homeowners. We all know a pill form would work. It could then be dispensed through pharmacies as well as any other drug. For those who say it works quicker smoking it, I say, "I don't smoke my heart pills and they work just fine. Plan ahead."

I don't have a problem with legalizing Marijuana. The United State is the most incarcerated nation in the world. Probably over half on drug related crimes. I say take it out of the hands of the criminals. Its really not that harmful of a drug. Grow it in registered areas and get it out of our state and federal forests so people can safely walk in them again. You cannot hike in Hawaii anymore for fear of being booby trapped or shot. Its coming that way here. Every year pot growers take over my former landlord's woods in Calistoga and law enforcement does nothing to run them off. He can't walk his own land.

Sell it cheap, tax it and continue the drug testing and motor vehicle laws we have. If you don't want a well paying job that requires you be drug free that's your choice.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:08 am

I beg to differ. Try living in AZ for a couple of years and you'll feel CA with all of it's problems is not that bad. Speaking from first hand experience of course.

Greg_Cornish · Post by **Greg_Cornish** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:53 am

My cousin stopped in Phoenix to make a phone call at a phone booth. Two guys jumped her and took her rings. beat her and drug her down the street for 20 yards because she wouldn't give up her wallet with her kids photos. 2 weeks in the hospital.

Dom · Post by **Dom** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:09 pm

This is not a debate I was just curious what yall thought I was asked by my boss today if I would condone my kids smoking pot I laughed and said ofcourse not but then again I dont condone my kids drinking either but its legal to do so.

I do see negative and positive on both sides but no matter what I would not want the kids to smoke it it plays on your ambitions and does make you lazy and lord knows my son dont need to be any more lazy LOL

But like Graig said if it was done right monitored and controlled like beer,etc... then I see no harm. I mean if a kid wants it bad enough he will find a way just like we did back in high school when we needed a couple of Kegs for our parties but thats just teens being teens. Thanks for the input.

As for AZ we have bad people everywhere keep your guns loaded teach your kids they are not toys till this day I have never allowed my kids to play with toy guns sends the wrong message my kids know about all my guns and they know there is only one time to touch em and that if you have to use it (and yes they can shoot)

Times are tough people are desprate lock your doors and trust no strangers and again keep the guns loaded

Ringer · Post by **Ringer** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 2:24 pm

I have a son in prison for drug issues and have lived that for 20 years. I am very conservative but I am to the point that it is moronic to fight a war on drugs just like prohibition was a waste. Half of the people in prison and more than half of law enforcement labor is spent on drugs. My buddy just had his F-250 stolen and they found it trashed along the border and it was used to run drugs from Mexico. Mexico is becoming a failed narco state. Just legalize all drugs and save trillions and reduce crime dramatically. Your kids can buy them now at will. Tax the crap out of them and use some of the money for rehab programs for people who are addicted. Take the market away from the cartels and watch crime drop right away. Sounds like heresy but I truly believe it is the way to go.

Robert F · Post by **Robert F** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 3:57 pm

Ringer wrote: Take the market away from the cartels and watch crime drop right away. Sounds like heresy but I truly believe it is the way to go.

Yep, they will all get jobs and become productive citizens

Just like the Lottery that was going to save the school programs the spenders will find a way to waste the bucks that legalized drug sales would produce.

Drill for oil. That will actually help the masses and the State can make more money from Oil companies than from hypochondriacs looking for an excuse to legally get high.

Greg_Cornish · Post by **Greg_Cornish** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 4:48 pm

Ringer wrote:Take the market away from the cartels and watch crime drop right away. Sounds like heresy but I truly believe it is the way to go.

That'd piss off the Cartel, huh?

mark poulson · Post by **mark poulson** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:39 am

I personally think legalizing marijuana is okay. It's not the answer to everything, but the demonized penalties are way out of proportion to the crime, and it's destroying our criminal court system from overload.
Now, I smoked some when I was young, but I grew up, and stopped.
My #3 son, 24, tells me it's his rec. drug of choice.
I'm driving my 50 year old brother-in-law to and from chemo and radiation for cancer of the tongue. He doesn't smoke cigarettes, bu he's smoked pot every day since he was 16.
That gave my son something to think about.
Anything done to excess can be harmful.
But I don't think smoking dope shouldn't be a crime, unless you smoke and drive, just like booze.

Vince E · Post by **Vince E** » Thu Feb 26, 2009 7:22 am

We've been having a rash of home invasion robberies around here. Thugs storming in with guns and stealing people's legal grows.
If any 21 year old could buy the stuff at the corner liquor store for about the same price as a bottle of booze, with all of the same taxes and restrictions applied, I wouldn't have to worry (quite as much) about when bullets might start flying because the real criminals are trying to steal the pot I can smell growing in my neighbors yard.
The simplest, most straightforward way to decrease crime is to take the profit out of it.

Trillions of dollars wasted.

Prisons crowded with people, who might otherwise be convinced to be halfway decent citizens, that are now immersed in the violent culture of killers, rapists and thieves. And they must learn from them to survive.

Another element being fortified in the ever increasing police state that we will all live under.

A huge source of lost tax revenue.

Yes there are bad things about it just like there are bad things about alcohol, but people are going to do what they want to one way or another and if you try stop them all your going to do is legislated away all liberty in the process. That's collateral damage that I find unacceptable.

I'm sure I missed something but it seems that if it were treated just like alcohol the pros of legalization greatly outweigh the cons.