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Wow, people could have the right to grow pot legally but that's not enough because they are too lazy to do it or figure how to do it, so let's create a government controlled industry to accommodate them....the American Way!

Amsterdam cafes rely heavily on tourist dollars and Mexican pot is not considered high quality; Hydro is superior. Creating a regulated industry will also cause damage to our culture ala Holland. The Dutch had second thoughts and tightened their drug laws: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2149385/posts FYI, there is a huge black market now, giving people the right to grow their own would reduce it, lazy defense aside, and reduce the demand for foreign sources. It's amazing that people profess to want personal rights, but would rather have the government get more involved in regulation of those rights instead of just taking personal responsibility for them and keeping the government effectively out of them.

Every industry is government controlled if you look at it that way. Your logic is confounding to me. How is “no, you can't do it” less government control than “yes, you can produce and sell marijuana but you must have the appropriate permits and take steps to ensure the product is free from toxic pesticides and harmful molds and so on and it you can't sell it to minors.” Every industry has some basic regulations. The government is not being kept out when it completely forbids an industry. That's not more freedom, that's less freedom. You are making no sense whatsoever.

And as for the Dutch, go to Holland, my friend. What you will find is that you can walk into these coffeeshops and buy marijuana, hash, and all sorts of teas and cakes and other consumable products that contain marijuana. You can buy seeds to grow your own. You can have marijuana and not worry one bit about being arrested. They've closed down some of the coffeeshops, but there are still plenty left and the marijuana laws and policies haven't changed. They did ban the sales of magic mushrooms and they are trying to stop some of the drug tourism and crack down on organized crime, but marijuana is still de facto legal there. And it hasn't hurt their culture, and it is still true that even though they've allowed for marijuana possession and sales since the Seventies a lower percentage of the Dutch smoke marijuana than Americans and several of their European neighbors who do not allow their people such freedom.

The Netherlands is a good example of why just letting people grow their own will not stop organized crime. They let people grow their own, and they allow for sales in these coffeeshops. They do not allow for commercial production though, so organized crime stepped in to supply these coffeeshops. They smuggle hash in. They produce marijuana on a comparatively large scale. They supply the coffeeshops and have made enough money to fund other criminal enterprises, such as exporting marijuana and producing and exporting drugs like Ecstasy. Their tentacles are getting into everything. Billions of dollars from the marijuana industry helps these groups grow into large and sophisticated criminal organizations.

We'd still have the same thing going on if we legalized possession of marijuana and growing a few plants but did not allow for commercial production and regulated sales of marijuana. The average pot smoker is not going to grow his own. The average pot smoker doesn't smoke enough pot to justify growing his own. He wouldn't even need that much pot. Most pot smokers only smoke a few grams per month, if they smoke that much. Some smoke more, some a lot more. Only the heaviest smokers can really justify growing their own, and a lot of them might not have anywhere to grow it, or they won't be able to be home enough to take care of it, and so on. It makes much more sense just to have a shop that's sort of like a liquor store where people can go in and pick up a very small amount of pot, a joint, a gram, something like that, or a little more if they want. If we tell people they can't have it unless they grow their own most of them will just buy black market pot, and if there is a black market you can bet your shirt organized crime will be heavily involved.

The government estimates that between 12,000 and 25,000 metric tons of marijuana are available on the market here in a given year. That's between 12 billion and 25 billion grams of marijuana. That's just a staggering amount. It is estimated that the Mexicans produced 15,500 metric tons of marijuana in 2007 and most of it came here. That's 15.5 billion grams and most of it came here. Ridiculous quantities of marijuana are consumed in this country every year. There are tens of billions of dollars to be made every year in our black market for marijuana. It's a huge business. Mexican drug trafficking organizations make most of their money from marijuana sales. We are not going to stop this massive illegal industry by letting those who want to grow a couple of plants. The only way we will take this money from organized crime is to allow for a legal marijuana industry, where commercial production is legal and the product can be sold from licensed shops.