5. Texas' education system is a hot mess. Our roads are crumbling. Funding is slashed every time we turn around. We could use those tax dollars. Pretty self-explanatory. Let's be real here. Our education system is a disaster. Slashing 4 billion dollars from public schools in our state was a horrible idea to begin with, Slick Rick, and now that the 22 kid per classroom limit has been raised, the overcrowding just adds to how utterly useless our classrooms, and schools, have become.
The injection of tax dollars, or even a "rainy day" fund similar to the ones in place for oil and gas, could sure do a whole hell of a lot to oh, I don't know, pay teachers enough to ensure we hire and keep the best ones. That huge injection of tax revenue that Colorado is about to benefit from could certainly do quite a bit to dig Texas out of that whole "cutting 5 to 6 percent of the community college funding" thing, too.
If we're really "thinking of the children" here, cutting funds for their educations is a complete contradiction to that mindset. We need to fix the issue as soon as possible. It comes down to weighing the ramifications of weed legalization for adults versus classrooms that are incapacitated by a lack of seats and funding, and it doesn't seem like a terribly difficult equation. Unless you've been educated by our public school system, of course.
4. Most Texans want to move forward with legalization. So the advocacy group, Marijuana Policy Project, conducted a poll of Texans in regards to issues of legalization, and the results were released in October 2013. Guess what? 58 percent of Texans support outright legalization and regulation. Right on, Texas. I knew most of us were "friendly Texans" for a stoned reason.
Yep, our conservative little state believes not only in the right to choose medical marijuana as a treatment, but in the right to partake in recreational pot use as well. So if your state wants it passed -- a state that is traditionally super conservative, don't you think it's wise to listen to the constituents? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
3. Economic stimulus does not come via "packages" or pleas for out-of-state businesses to move to Texas; it comes by way of small businesses and job creation. Why, oh why are we panhandling in radio ads in other states, begging the businesses to move to Texas, where we'll ignore your indiscretions and tax you less, when we could simply be creating jobs and allowing small businesses to grow by massive proportions with the passage of pot legalizations? Folks will be needed to grow it, regulate it, and sell it. Money goes into banks, giving them the ability to provide small business loans, which create more jobs, and so forth, so on.
It certainly seems like a surefire plan to stimulate the economy. Mailing out stimulus checks that people use for their bills or offering big businesses from out of state some sort of strange immunity for relocation to the Lone Star state isn't quite the same as actually injecting the economy with alternative methods for self-sufficiency. Teach a man to fish (or grow pot), man. It's the only way.
2. The most dangerous thing about marijuana is the fact that it's illegal. When Dr Sanjay Gupta rescinds his marijuana chastising and apologizes for his "role in misleading the public," perhaps it's time to take note. You've been had, folks. Reefer Madness it is not. Check out Dr Gupta's quote on the entire situation when it comes to pot misnomers.
Most frightening to me is that someone dies in the United States every 19 minutes from a prescription drug overdose, mostly accidental. Every 19 minutes. It is a horrifying statistic. As much as I searched, I could not find a documented case of death from marijuana overdose.
See that, folks? And Dr Gupta knows all.
Here's the deal with weed. Marijuana is not a gateway drug. It literally does not lead users into harder drugs. That's one of the biggest misnomers out there. Long term marijuana use, even by smoking, has not been showed to increase a risk in cancer, unlike cigarettes, which it is often (unfairly) categorized with. And to top it all off, it is the safest substance of any of the legal or illegal drugs that you can use. Legit.
Cannabis has been proven to ease seizures in children, and those with neurologic muscle conditions that cause spastic movements. Marijuana relieves chemotherapy side effects in cancer patients, and nausea is super hard to treat when it comes to chemotherapy.
There is research on using marijuana to treat a number of other conditions, all with fewer side effects than those listed on the drugs pumped out by Pfizer, but we can't freaking commence with that research in the states until it's legalized. We're forcing research overseas, stagnating quite a bit of what could be discovered -- and presumably removing research jobs from the United States -- because we're conditioned to believe marijuana will lead you or your teenager to a life of meth addiction.
