PROPOSAL TO LEGALIZE POT IN MASSACHUSETTS - WHO DIDN'T SEE THIS COMING?

Wakefield - The Massachusetts' legislators rolled out another
interesting proposal last week -legalizing marijuana. And surprise of
all surprises, the proposal would set up yet another state agency to
regulate the deal. We have only to speak of a few state agencies gone
awry to see how that works - Massachusetts Turnpike Authority,
MassPort, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner - if you're
unfamiliar, just Google them, there's plenty there.

Since Massachusetts' voters passed a law to decriminalize marijuana
last November, this proposal was only a matter of time. However, no
matter which side of the bong you're sitting on, this presents some
interesting options.

From the Yeah-dude perspective: hundreds of people could become
gainfully employed in the time span of a single toke, community
gardens would cultivate a new crop of gardeners, the state can
finally capitalize on one of it's fastest growing industries, and
newspapers and other print media will benefit from pharmaceutical
companies major ad campaigns extolling the virtues of Celexa and
Xanax as feel-good over the counter options to street pot. The pace
of life will become a lot slower and ethics and corruption in the
Massachusetts political system will be easier to deal with.

From the Not-in-my-backyard point of view:
Marijuana-as-a-gateway-drug proponents will have a tougher job trying
to convince people of their message, pharmaceutical companies as
mentioned above will be waitlisted for bailouts by the federal
government because they will be on the verge of bankruptcy, and all
those employee manuals that state "We do random drug testing" will
have to adopt new policies excluding pot from their list of illicit drugs.

Legalizing marijuana will leave taxpayers in a haze when it comes to
dealing with Massachusetts' bureaucracy. Imagine the confusion when
folks find out the acronyms have changed:

DPH - Department of Public Health becomes Department of Pot Heads

MBTA - Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority becomes Major Big
Twinkies Available

RMV - Registry of Motor Vehicles becomes the Reefer Madness Venders

New grassroots efforts will take to the streets including Bring back
trans fat and Toke 'N' Smoke sections in restaurants will be the
fastest growing crazes.

At this point, we're looking for more research on the subject; please
pass me a lighter so I can make informed decision.