Living in the Province in Canada where pot is most tolerated and almost revered, but still not legal, I feel the need to weigh in on this. While not measured with the precision it is in California, I am sure that marijuana is the biggest cash crop in British Columbia and along with that come some great social ills.

What most of the organized pot growers do is trade marijuana for either cocaine or guns. I grew up in a nice, civilised country where the ordinary person did not carry a gun. There was no need unless you were a hunter, so hand guns were not part of the social make up. With the advent of the marijuana trade, the lack of guns has become a thing of the past. In the greater Vancouver area alone, there have been approximately 20 murders by shooting and 24 gun related incidents since January 1st of this year. In essence, the marijuana trade has made this country into a degenerate society where shooting people in crowded places in broad daylight has become a reality.

In reality, I am not against the decriminalization and taxing of marijuana along the lines of how we treat liquor in this country. (One only needs to view the crowded parking lots of government run liquor stores on any day of the week to realise that people do need to escape, either the good old fashioned, non-prescription way or through any other means)

Also in reality, I don't think it will work. Previous attempts at decriminalizing marijuana have not worked in Canada. The general population thinks it is that our federal government cow-towed to Mr. Bush blaming the evil of Canadian marijuana for all of whatever was going wrong with the moral fibre of the United States. In actuality, the biggest opposition to the legalization/decriminalization of pot came from those who either grow, transport or sell the commodity. These people are adverse to filling out all those pesky tax forms and business licenses. They are loathe to declare their actual income or value of the barter from the product. (as far as I know, there is no line item or calculation on our tax returns that allows for the dollar value of cocaine or hand guns or semi-automatic weapons to be itemized and declared) They are also concerned that while easy to do illegally, importing guns legally is a paperwork process that is basically the seventh circle of hell. I can't even imagine what hoops one would have to jump through on the cocaine angle.

I don't use marijuana myself. However, I have no judgement or opposition to anyone who does. You can walk down the street in any of our cities or resort towns and smoke a joint and not be arrested or harrassed. Cafes that serve marijuana products are allowed to operate and are only bothered by police if evidence exist that the dealing or exporting of the prodct is going on. For the purposes of clarity here, dealing had a limit of a certain amount as does growing. The guidelines for growing or carrying for the purposes of distribution or exportation are fluid, as the product is still considered illegal. And, quite frankly, our tax dollars are better deployed elsewhere than arresting and prosecuting pot smokers.

Actually, I am for the decriminalization of all drugs. You only has to take a look at the ravages of cocaine and heroin that exist on Vancouver's downtown east-side to figure that there has to be a better solution.

The difficulty with decriminalization is - how do you put the gun and other illegal drug genie back in the bottle? How do you force a section of society which is used to operating under the radar and far more adept at side stepping regulations than your average citizen to pay taxes and declare income? What will these people do to make the kind of money or doing the kind of trade they are used to doing? Are we going to be faced with greater diffculties because the manufacture of meth and other forms of getting high will proliferate and create more problems?

The idea is great, the implementation is at best cumbersome, at worst almost impossible.

The people who consume marijuana are not the problem. The people who grow and sell marijuana are. The consumers are everyone from CEO's, their lawyers, doctors, tree hugging, hemp wearing mellow snow boarders to chronic meth/heroin/coke addicts trying to smoke their way through a tough come down to get to the next fix.

The growers, distributors and those organized to reap the benefits of the crop are not interested in the end consumer, they are interested in what they gain from the sale of the product. Hence, guns, hard drugs and the inevitable violence that comes from the availablity of weapons of death.

I am sure, knowing the amount of people who use pot that the ability to capture and tax the revenues from marijuana would provide an enormous tax base which could pay for several social programs that would do nothing but good and would stabilize failing economies. The difficulty is in the capture. Good luck with that.