Where " POT " Is Legal !

California would certainly have been the place to be for recreational pot smokers when July 1 rolled in. New laws came into effect on that day and a law upgrade ended a six month moratorium of legal marijuana being replaced by a stricter quality regimen that required the product to be free of pesticides and microbiological contamination, packed in child proof packaging and tested for potency.

For days, the marijuana industry has been heavily discounting old stock at reduced prices to stay within the law.  It will be interesting to see how much trickled over the border into surrounding states where pot is still illegal and possession can result in a prison term.  Legality has certainly put the street pushers in California out of business.

The interesting question concerns how taxation will affect marihuana distribution.  The tax rate is forty percent on some products and legitimate vendors fear this may send customers back to the unlicensed dispensaries which number about 1300 in Los Angeles alone.  Just because the product is now legal it will not avoid the criminal fraternity who do their trade as a tax dodge.

What is even more interesting is the silence from Washington.  The biggest and most populace state in the United States has legalised marijuana - and the sky has not fallen !   In fact several smaller states have also taken the plunge, and to the north Canada has also granted the right to its people to smoke a joint for similar satisfaction gained from cigarettes and drinking alcohol.

It all seems to hark back to that old puritanical notion that any sort of pleasure - is a sin.  Probably the reason some of the churches had such a hard time dealing with the sex question.  People were supposed to be working hard and praising God.  Having fun in any form was definitely not on that agenda.

A long time ago the world hippie movement had discovered marijuana when addiction to heroin began to become a problem.  Marijuana got swept up in a drug panic and over decades the drug scene has advanced to various forms of narcotics with Cocaine and Oxy-Codeine heading the death toll.  It is claimed that marijuana is merely playing an introductory role in leading users to hard drugs.

In much of the world the majority of police anti drug activity is directed at the marijuana trade. At the same time, those caught with small quantities for personal use are usually released with a caution. The politicians thinking of legalising marijuana are terrified of being accused of being " soft on drugs " and avoid any involvement with a sensible solution.

Sadly, any hope of marijuana being legalized in Australia and providing a welcome tax dividend to the treasury seems unlikely in the near future !