Not only in tax dollars for prosecution and incarceration, but in lives.
This latest case of just one drug robbery gone bad (over marijuana) has produced this;
- Prosecution of 3 conspiritors and a murderer
- One person dead, another injured
- Probably over a million dollars in prosecution costs and incarceration
This was ONE incident over the greed and hysteria caused by people dealing weed. Heck, we even had a shoot-out in the streets of Sioux Falls over people stealing weed from each other, which could have resulted in more people dead, including police officers. It is going on across the country, and other states are realizing the war just isn’t worth it anymore, and are seizing a tax revenue source in the process instead more costs in prosecution to taxpayers. In fact, one little town in Colorado has experienced a monthly sales tax increase of $44,000 a month and are using the windfall to fix their streets instead of building bigger jails and courtrooms.
While I support medical marijuana legalization in South Dakota, I encourage the petitioners to go whole hog instead, and support a measure that also legalizes recreational usage. I actually believe such a measure would get more support than just medical (it has failed twice on the ballot in SD).
I’ve seen many lives ruined because of marijuana, a (natural) drug that has been proven to be much less harmful then alcohol (a narcotic) and could be sold legally to create a tax revenue source for counties struggling with tight budgets when it comes to legal services.
Lives ruined because of the insatiable desire to make felons out of people who smoke a plant.
There are also other benefits besides medical and homeopathic. It is also an incredible agriculture product that can be grown in its NON-THC form, Hemp, to be used in clothing, essential oils and can even be burned producing as much energy heat as coal. The uses are endless.
I have often believed that cannabis is a true gift from God that we have bastardized because of the greed of our prison systems and the pharmaceutical industry. This pointless greed has hit home, and we must use the Lebeau incident as a lesson in how we can take something bad like botched drug deals, and turn them into a positive, to help the sick, the state coffers and the agriculture industry. Let’s pull our heads out of the sand in this country and state and use this amazing gift to our benefit.