In my past diaries on Yes on Proposition 19, Control and Tax Cannabis, aka marijuana decriminalization in California, I’ve shown that right wing conservatives funded by their usual business interests, are behind the continued attempt to let the Federal government waste money on continued harassment of pot users. I agree with the former San Jose Police Chief Joseph McNamara, who says that:
most bad things about marijuana – especially the violence made inevitable by an obscenely profitable black market – are caused by the prohibition, not by the plant.
An “obscenely profitable” black market cannot exist with out high level cynicism and corruption in our Federal, state, and even sometimes, county governments. The state of CA has been severely cutting back maintenance, employees, hours, access to public parks and recreational areas and facilities for outdoor sports and recreational users under their self inflicted “budget austerity,” and the Federal government has been socking us with increased, draconian “user fees,” for groups, yet they continue to have plenty of loot to fight against personal growing of a weedy herb, which would deflate the market for it. Priorities are misplaced. The war on pot has been an expensive failure.