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Marijuana could be a fresh revenue source
12.18.06|Concord Monitor|By MARK FULLER

I am concerned about comments by Attorney General Kelly Ayotte and Drug Enforcement agent Stansbury. Ayotte said the bust will have a significant impact on the drug trade across New England. Stansbury said you cannot put a price on the lives destroyed by drug dealing.

If marijuana is worth $280 per ounce, $28 million worth of marijuana was meant to supply about 100,000 people with an ounce each. Are we to expect that 100,000 people will look elsewhere for a substitute? No, if those consumers are driven the way consumers of other commodities are, they will simply seek another supply.

The drug trade involves the illegal distribution of mind-altering chemical substances such as marijuana. Alcohol is the worst of them all. Yet legal measures are made for the manufacture, distribution and consumption of alcohol.

The property owners were participating in an industry that is forced underground. Marijuana is a weed. Tobacco is a weed. Alcohol is a poison.

This bust is one small example of a large amount of revenue that is untaxed. People who grow pumpkins must pay their taxes. Growing marijuana is like growing corn or tobacco. It is pointless not to bring marijuana into conformity with the controls for other products - coffee, tea, tobacco, alcohol.
Growing and smoking marijuana is a nonviolent activity. For many people, smoking it brings relief from pain and stress. It is a natural alternative to synthetic drugs for the treatment of certain serious medical conditions.

What will we do with $28 million worth of pot? We could fire the steam plant for five minutes, but how about financing education and health care?

The restrictions that outlaw growing and smoking marijuana are absurd.