Legalization of a Special Plant that is Currently Illegal in Most States

Shire Time Session 5…


What do you think Gandalf and Bilbo were smoking in their pipe? This was an intense discussion me and my roommate had the other night. I thought it was just pipe tobacco but then Jamie, my roommate, had an exceedingly interesting point—Gandalf smokes his pipe when he wants to calm down and get a better perspective on his current situation. “So what?” you might ask, “tobacco can calm you down and clear your thoughts; yes it can but then why does Gandalf walk away from other people when he smokes his pipe? It is almost like it is shunned upon in society. I don’t know… you take your choice but I’m gonna agree with Jamie; I think he is smoking marijuana. Also he always seems to smoke in different towns, sometimes in Rohan, other times it’s the Elvin bud. While this is all just in some books and movies, there is a real debate going on over the legalization of weed.

Proposition 19 is an initiative that had high hopes for legalizing cannabis in California; however, it failed to pass a couple months ago. The debate of Proposition 19 brought up a lot of thoughts and emotions on the topic. Personally, I think it should have passed and I believe it will pass in 3 or 4 years. The benefits far outweigh the drawbacks; our economy and society would prosper from this. Economically, the sale of cannabis would stimulate the economy and provide tons of tax money for the government. The sales of weed, weed smoking devices, and probably even grocery store sales, due to the munchies, would bring vast amounts of money into California.

The opponents of this proposition claim that crime rates would increase and everyone would basically turn into pot heads; this just isn’t true. The crime would actually probably lower after an initial upswing. Once local businesses start producing weed, no criminals will smuggle anymore in because it is produced locally now and is a lot cheaper. Although more people will smoke, the increase in number of weed smokers that these opponents suggest won’t cause “pot heads.” Weed is so easy to come by that if someone had potential to be a pot head, they would regardless of the law. In the end I believe this proposition would stimulate the economy and only slight changes would occur to the crime rate.