MJ Editorial

Over the years, the city of Seattle has slowly knocked down most of the penalties surrounding the use of marijuana, and for good reasons. We now live in a city where the penalty for posession of the green stuff warrants only a small fine and no jail time, and where even that penalty is rarely handed out by itself. Police doing crowd control at HempFest walk through endless clouds of marijuana smoke, yet no arrests are made. Officially, personal marijuana use is a lower police priority than jaywalking. It seems that the police here have realized they have more important things to worry about than non-violent marijuana smokers.

It's estimated that 50% of Americans have tried pot in their lives, and over 10% are regular users. In a city like Seattle, those numbers will definitely be higher. With such relaxed police enforcement a huge amount of marijuana is being smoked every day, but the money that the marijuana is purchased with is obviously tax free. Some goes to small-time growers trying to make their living, but some also goes to organized crime and gangs which control large amounts of the marijuana supply. With the current billion-dollar state budge shortfall, it's time that the government start tapping into those "green" funds.

The state government makes millions off of alcohol and tobacco taxation. It can be argued that marijuana is a safer solution to both of those intoxicants, but it remains illegal. Both of those substances have strict rules governing their sale and use, and those same rules could easily apply to marijuana. Studies have proven that it's not the "devil weed" like old propaganda would have you believe, and it is entirely possible to be a responsible marijuana user just as easily as it's possible to be a responsible alcohol user.

Legalizing marijuana would remove most of the dangers commonly associated with the drug, as well as taking away a major source of income from organized crime and giving it to the government. It's time we wake up and smell the, uh, herbs.