Pubdate: Fri, 08 May 2015
Source: Porterville Recorder (CA)
Copyright: 2015 Freedom Communications Inc.
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/AJm5UIc8
Website: http://www.recorderonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2887
Author: Robert Sharpe
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n250/a04.html

MAKE MARIJUANA LEGAL

Regarding your May 5 editorial, one day marijuana will be fully legal
and there will be no environmentally destructive wilderness grows.
Suburban basement grows with artificial lights and massive carbon
footprints will be a thing of the past.

These are vestiges of marijuana prohibition. When marijuana is fully
legal, legitimate farmers will produce it by the ton under natural
sunlight and ideal soil conditions at a fraction of the current cost.
This is important. Financial incentives drive harmful cultivation
practices. Marijuana prohibition distorts supply and demand dynamics
so that big money grows on little trees. Mexican drug cartels do not
sneak into national forests to grow cucumbers and tomatoes. They
cannot compete with real farmers.

For the sake of the environment, the sooner the marijuana plant is
treated as a legal agricultural commodity, the better. California
needs to catch up with Colorado.

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt