Mary Jane Says...

Last night I was at a party. A very mixed group of college educated professionals, paraprofessionals & some hard working folks ~ it was a really fun time.

A neighbor of the hosts came & he was a Shasta County Sheriff's Deputy & had been for many years. The talk turned to the dire state of this state's affairs & that mismanagement is mismanagement no matter how you view it.

Then, in a conversation twist that I'm still not sure how I managed, I suggested that we should legalize marijuana. I expected to be brutally rebuffed by such a fellow ~ he was a sheriff, & had been for 30 years, so he was of an age & era that often disagreed with my lenient attitude toward pot ~ I was pleasantly surprised by his reaction & learned a lot from our chat.

He said that was exactly what the State of California should do. He told me that it's not just the taxes it would generate through the growth & sale, but that I should consider how much money would be saved by all that is spent eradicating it. Think of the millions & millions, even billions, spent in Shasta County alone. And that now with the Mexican Drug Cartels so fiercely guarding pot growth that it is so dangerous to the deputies that if it was legal & legitimate farmers were farming it everyone would win.

Then on the drive home, I was marveling to my husband about this Sheriff's enlightened view & he told me that the Mafia was really just a bunch of small time criminals until prohibition & that's when they really gained their money, power & influence.

Very interesting...