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Legalize marijuana to raise money for N.Y.

    Here is a simple way for New York to raise over $1 billion a year and reduce spending by hundreds of millions of dollars. We should rethink our puritanical beliefs and legalize marijuana, tax it excessively, and use all revenues to restrict illicit drug use by trial and error, i.e. fund programs that stop drug addiction.
    Most of the money should go to trying to get kids not to smoke. The savings in health-care costs long-term will more than offset the loss in revenues.
    As far as driving while impaired, we must be able to test for THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] content in the bloodstream of users when they drive cars, so a cheap way to test for THC levels should be done at the same time a DUI test is performed. The same levels of penalties should apply to users under the same degree of impairment.
    Private users will be given the same latitude as beer and wine makers, i.e. they will be permitted to grow a small amount for private consumption — sales are illegal.
    By keeping nonviolent offenders out of prison, we will see a dramatic reduction in the number of prisoners we must incarcerate and, at the same time, reduce the number of corrections officers, prosecutors and judges we need. This will also end the ridiculous and expensive attempts to eradicate [pot use].
    Far more of our kids are going to die from cigarettes than marijuana usage. Meanwhile, hemp — the benign male marijuana plants — could permit us to achieve a thriving cellulose biofuels industry and provide a cheap source of cellulose for paper.

    RICHARD MOODY JR.
    Berne

No way-----if it's leqalized then meth will take over.......or heroin.....at least alcohol is relatively cheap and we can leqally make it ourselves if we so
choose

anyhow, after that 'kid' smoke marijuana 2weeks prior to an auto accident that killed 3 and an unborn baby,,,,,my quess is there will will be so much red
tape that no one will make $$$.......

how will it list on the DOW??? MJ for maryjane?????? I bet it would fill our portfolios......just like the NYS lotto.....ha ha ha ha ha ha