Pubdate: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 Source: Kern Valley Sun (CA) Copyright: 2011 Kern Valley Sun Contact: http://www.kvsun.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5281 Author: James Allen MARIJUANA AND CAPITALISM The large scale marijuana grows operating on the outskirts Kern County are run by the Mexican drug cartels. The same people who used to grow massive amounts of marijuana in our forest destroying our forest land. Because of the availability of good quality medically grown marijuana the prices have come down considerably. The market for their crummy Mexican forest-grown marijuana is no longer there. Nobody wants to buy that garbage when you can buy something much better for almost as cheap at a pot club. This has driven the Mexican cartels out of the forest into the cities and counties where they can properly tend to the plants and grow higher quality weed. So they can compete with the medically grown stuff, which is currently being grown by patients. The new ordnance is not going to hurt the drug cartels, in fact, it's going to help them. There will now be less medically grown pot and the price will be driven up. It will bring back the market for the cheap crummy Mexican forest grown weed. Marijuana is California's number one cash crop and no matter what we do it always will be, the only thing at question is, do we allow the drug cartels to make all the money off of it? Or do we embrace it, tax it and make the money for our own impoverish state? The thing that really gets my goat about all of this the Sheriff keeps saying that medical marijuana stores and the grows are all about money, and he says it like its a bad thing. My question is when did it become bad thing in America to make a profit? If we're gonna become a Communist or Socialist state then the government should grow it for us and give it to us free. Nobody seems to have a problem with the pharmacies and the pharmaceutical companies making enormous profits. James Allen - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom