RE: Re: And Now For Some Reality

Let's go at this from a different direction. Maybe if we illustrate the economics of the situation, you'll see the problems with your suggestion.

Let's say the Congress passes a law that says individuals may grow all the pot they want for their personal use. Jubilation ensues in California and Michigan. Further, the law states that it is illegal for an person or corporate entity to sell, market, or otherwise distribute for profit any form of marijuana. We'll call it the Strother Act.

Any entrepreneurial activity is based on the ratio of risk to reward. Prior to the Strother Act, the risk-reward ratio for growing and selling pot was exceptionally low, that is, moderate risk, very high reward. Has the Strother Act changed that? Not really. The reward component has slightly altered because some people can grow pot themselves. Therefore, the street price declines somewhat. However, people in the inner city, people without a green thumb, and just plain lazy people will not grow it. Furthermore, since there is now no risk for the buyer, overall demand will increase. This increase in demand might even be enough to partly or mostly offset the price decline due to home growers. The risk factor hasn't changed a bit, in fact it has actually declined somewhat. Smart producers will split their growing fields into smaller portions so that if busted, they could reasonably claim they were growing it for their own use. Also, if caught in the process of exchange, the seller can claim he was just giving some pot to his friend.

Well, it seems nothing much has changed except that now pot has become even more ubiquitous than before and law enforcement has reduced means for dealing with it. So Congress gets back to work and amends the Strother Act. It puts limits on how much pot an individual can grow, prohibits individuals from giving their pot away, and makes it illegal for anyone to buy pot. Great. Wonderful. Now we have a situation that is worse than before the initial Strother Act. Law enforcement must now deal with all the problems they had before, but now they have the impossible task of differentiating between personal use and distribution. That is, before the Strother Act, anyone in possession of a pot plant was breaking the law. After the Strother Act, possession could mean any number of different things.

All that is done with this solution is to trade one set of problems for another. And, as bonus, the number one threat to human life caused by drug use, driving while impaired, has now increased because it is legal to grow your own pot.