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I think that I failed to understand your cut and paste. It seemed to me that Finland still taxes hell out of marijuana by fining people for producing it but then maybe that article says just the opposite.
I wonder if they take any of that fine money to pay for education. If so, they are ahead of California in that respect, again unless I just can't read.
In response to the first post, I've posted, many times now, the numerous scientific, peer reviewed studies from well respected institutions that show there is no harmful side effects of the drug in marijuana in regular use. Smoking is bad for you, yes, but as I've said, numerous ways to use it without smoking.
What Finland does actually goes farther than what California does. California isn't making growing legal, and its only "small amounts" that are being decriminalized. Finland actually took it a step further. The decriminalized the growing of up to 6 plants, with a small fine of around 200 dollars if found. No jail time for growing as well.
They don't use that money on education, they actually spend a fraction of what we do on education. Roughly half of what we do per student. I was simply pointing out that psuedo legal marijuana obviously doesn't make children do worse in school, if the country with the best educated students has marijuana that is legal in almost every way, except name only.
I know a man who went to college on a full ride scholarship for track and field and came home telling me how hard the coach was working them in the fall. I questioned that since I knew the man so well but when he told me about a kid in the dorm who made peanut and butter sandwiches and put pot on top of them he tipped his hand to me.
The coach said he had seen him twice that semester, when he came in to get the papers for the scholarship and when he called him in at semester end to take it back from him. That same poor soul told me when he was 25 that he would never know just how fast he really was because he liked that drug so much. Nobody ever knew just how fast he was because he always ran just fast enough to win in high school and he liked the pot too much to compete on the college team.
While I highly doubt you know the "full story", I will say that there is less than 1% of marijuana users who show any mental addiction symptoms.
I'd be willing to bet you this individual that you are speaking of was doing far more than marijuana, or there was other sides to this story than just pot. I myself have a upper middle class job, and graduated college with a 4.0 while smoking marijuana almost daily.
Arnold is Governor of California, and he smokes pot.
Michael Phelps is the greatest, fastest swimmer on the face of the planet, and he smokes pot.
For your one example of an idiot going to far with whatever he was doing, I can site 20 examples of famous over achievers who use marijuana.
No, the Governator is a European Socialist. Nothing Conservative about him. Never was.
So first it will hurt the kids. I disprove that by showing that a European socialist country has the greatest education system in the world, and then you attack him by saying he is a European socialist? Arnold cut taxes and cut the budget out there in California. That sure doesn't sound like a socialist to me.
That's the first liberal idea that I've ever seen that passes the common sense test.
The definition of liberal is someone that believes in government control of whatever they are debating.
Since thats the case, the prohibition of marijuana isn't a conservative idea, its liberal. In this case, many Republicans are liberals, they believe in government control.
Social conservatives support the right to choose.
We've twisted the term "conservative" to mean Republican, instead of the other way around.
Right, wrong or indifferent, Schwarzenegger is doing something in a day where others are doing nothing. It saddens me to see that, by and large,
our political leaders haven't got the backbone to stand up on contemporary issues any more. It becomes apparent that they, all too often, will shirk their
responsibilities to their constituents, either going with a populist tide or shrinking back and skirting those issues completely. Arnold may be proven wrong in
his decision but then, there's always the chance that history will show his progressive stance on marijuana, to be a working alternative to tying up the legal
system and it's crippling effect on the state budget.
Unless we attempt to address the marijuana situation in some new manner, we'll never know about viable alternatives and probably be destined to keep
this open wound, continuing to make criminals out of otherwise productive citizens, burdening the legal system and bleeding resources from an already rapidly
depleting financial picture. Whatever Arnold Schwarzenegger's motives are, they are really secondary to this fact: someone needs to take the bull by the horns
and stop blowing smoke up our fannies. I also believe that history will mark him as a visionary, someone who was willing to put his political neck on the block at a time
when taking the position that he's taken, is viewed as so politically volatile and yet, so long overdue.
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