NYS Senate Democrats want to legalize medical marijuana as a way to generate nearly $15 million in licensing fees to help plug the state’s $9 billion budget gap.
“It is the right thing to do and there is revenue attached to it,” said state Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan). Duane and Assemblyman Richard Gottfried (D-Manhattan) are behind the plan to make it legal for folks with serious medical woes to score limited amounts of weed from state-certified distributors – or grow it themselves.
The Senate still needs to approve the provision, though Dems included revenue projections from the sale of medical marijuana in their 2010-2011 budget proposal. “It’s ludicrous,” needled Sen. Martin Golden (R-Brooklyn).
(Read More: http://www.nydailynews.com/)
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5 Responses
I am sure some republicans also want to legalize it!
It should be legalized for medicinal purposes, but it is a shame that only budgetary woes moved people to this point.
Sounds very similar to Massachusetts plan to legalize casinos in order to raise more tax revenue.
These are examples of politicians compromising on moral principles just to raise some more money.
Imagine if an individual would do that.
Whether a scientific case can be made for legalization is unclear (the majority opinion says not, but many reputable people say otherwise).
However legalization would bring in lots of money. Of course this applies to Heroin, Cocaine, etc. The same probably goes for gambling and prostitution. And it will be a lot more popular than fiscal restraints, spending cuts or higher taxes.
It may bring in money buty ioty will also embolden the thugs and attarck more of the same and thus increase violence and danger to innocent people.