Pubdate: Sat, 08 Nov 2014
Source: Union, The (Grass Valley, CA)
Copyright: 2014 The Union
Contact:  http://www.theunion.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/957
Author: Robert Sharpe

TIME FOR CALIFORNIA TO CATCH UP WITH COLORADO

One day marijuana will be fully legal and there will be no suburban 
basement grows with massive carbon footprints. Environmentally 
destructive wilderness grows will become a thing of the past. Stinky 
neighborhood backyard grows will likewise disappear. These are all 
vestiges of marijuana prohibition. Once marijuana is fully legal, 
legitimate farmers will produce it by the ton under natural sunlight 
at a fraction of the current cost. It will be virtually worthless. 
This is important.

Financial incentives drive destructive cultivation practices. 
Marijuana prohibitions distorts supply and demand dynamics such that 
big money grows on little trees. Mexican drug cartels don't sneak 
into national forests to cultivate cucumbers and tomatoes. They 
cannot compete with farmers.

It's been 18 years since California voters passed Proposition 215. 
The time to regulate medical marijuana has passed. Now is the time 
for California to catch up with Colorado. The sooner the marijuana 
plant is treated as a legal agricultural commodity, the better.

Robert Sharpe, MPA, policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, DC
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom