Big Leather Couch

Saw a real interesting program on CNBC last Saturday night. Only caught the last 35 minutes of it, but the title was "Marijuana: Inside America's Pot Industry". It was an excellent look inside this tens of billion dollar industry and some of the areas where it is becoming more and more acceptable.

It focused on California's "Emerald Triangle" in Mendocino County, which is described as the center of the Marijuana industry in the U.S.

They also interviewed Bruce Perlowin, who in the 70's ran the biggest smuggling operation, running hundreds of tons of pot under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. He was eventually caught because he left a notebook with all his records in a freakin Denny's. Figures, stoned out and having the munchies and he does something stupid! LOL

But I was most interested in The Blue Sky Cafe in Oakland, CA...The cafe is modeled on the 'coffee shops' of Amsterdam and the area of the city they are located in has been dubbed Oaksterdam. If I remember correctly, they pay upwards of $3,000,000.00 in taxes a year and that is one store!

The show will air again on the 22nd at 8:00pm if you are interested.

I am totally in favor of the decriminalization of marijuana and have always felt that an individual should be able to cultivate 5 plants per calendar year. Now, if you are caught selling your marijuana, there should be criminal consequences...but if it is for your use...no harm, no foul.

But think about allowing stores to sell like The Blue Sky Cafe and the amount of tax money collected. Add to that the amount of money the government will save if it stops trying to eradicate Marijuana (estimated at $42-BILLION/year). The federal deficit could be wiped out within 5 -10 years.

It is time we stop the silliness...there is no evidence that if you smoke marijuana you will end up a heroin addict. Sure if you ask the heroin addicts if they smoked pot, most will say yes, but ask pot smokers if they have tried heroin and the majority will say no.

LOGIC people!

The winter Olympics are going to be held in Canada this year in Vancouver. Know what they call Vancouver? The Amsterdam of North America. Though not legal, the Vancouver police rarely bother people for possession of small amounts of pot and there are 'coffee shops' in the Hastings area of the city.

Did you know there are now 13 states where the possession of marijuana is not a criminal offense?