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Making Green Legal
And in the "broken clock" category, we have the ongoing de-facto legalization of marijuana, made possible by the quiet tolerance of the Obama administration's DEA. At the end of four years the business will likely be big enough to cause congressmen to squawk should a Republican end up the in the executive in 2012 and take a run at shutting it all down. At the end of eight it almost certainly will. I've thought marijuana was no more dangerous than cigarettes for years, and have the conventional libertarian desire to legalize (and tax) most if not all drugs, so I'm all for it.
Here's a fun fact: Weed grows quickly and unless you're trying to get purple buds and all, doesn't need much in the way of fertilizers. As such, it makes a great carbon sink, not to mention the useful products hemp can make.
Sooooo....
Legalize it and make an industry out of it. We remove CO2 from the air (probably good), get some quality products for hippies, and tax revenue - all while causing some of the criminal element to lose some of their income streams.
I'm having a hard time seeing a downside. Especially if we managed to use organic compost or the like as fertilizer, since this isn't a food crop. Less stuff in the landfills, too.
Goddammit, I'm fraking brilliant.
Posted by: Ron ap Rhys on December 16, 2009 09:00 AM