Marijuana

No, it isn't a flashback from my '60 days. I've carefully perused the dates on a bunch of marijuana-related stories, and they're all recent. Something is happening here, particularly in the western reaches of the United States, and I don't know what it is. (To paraphrase an old friend.) But it sure seems like the times they are a-changin'. Evidence... Oregon's Governor is about to sign a bill that will legalize the industrial production of hemp. Oregon is on the verge of becoming the first Western state to allow farmers to grow industrial hemp... Oregon will then become the seventh…

Way to go, Tom Ammiano. He's a California assemblyman who has introduced a bill to legalize marijuana in his state. AB 390 would decriminalize pot but regulate it like alcohol, limiting sales to those 21 and over. It would also impose a tax of $50 per ounce—something Ammiano said could bring $1 billion annually into our cash-starved state. The bill doesn't have much chance of passing, given the United States' irrational drug policies. But it's a much-needed step in the right direction. Recently New Scientist ran a story, "Radical alternatives proposed for cannabis controls," that described why legalizing marijuana makes…