Richard Branson says Spain can solve its economic problems by legalizing marijuana

[kpete]

Legalising cannabis would solve Spain's deficit problem, says Branson
By: ThinkSpain , Thursday, May 10, 2012

The official opening of Barcelona's Cannabis Museum yesterday proved to be the perfect opportunity for experts to renew calls for the legalisation of the drug, with Richard Branson saying that Spain could solve its deficit problem by legalising cannabis alone.

The multi-millionaire founder of the Virgin emporium is also a member of a global commission on drugs policy which includes five ex-presidents and Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general, and which concluded last year that the war on drugs had failed and called for experiments in decriminalisation.

Branson said that if Spain were to legalise cannabis use and collect taxes on its consumption, marijuana could go a long way towards solving its current economic problems: "it would help get the country back on its feet", he said.

Branson was in Barcelona to receive an award from the promotors of the new Cannabis Museum - the biggest in the world at 900 square metres - in recognition of the work the commission has done since 2004 to promote the acceptance of the plant in all its forms and the reintroduction of cannabis for medicinal purposes.

more:
http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/21179/legalising-cannabis-would-solve-spains-deficit-problem-says-branson
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/05/11/richard-branson-says-spain-can-solve-its-economic-problems-by-legalizing-marijuana/

[Royal Sloan 09]

1. No F' In Way! k * r

Oh wait,
legalize the plant
and
debt goes up in smoke!

[malcolmkyle]

2. Prohibition Sucks - The End!

Some simple facts:

* Prohibition has been a slow but relentless degradation (death by a zillion cuts) of all our cherished national institutions, that will leave us crippled for numerous generations.

* The USA federal government is now the most dangerous and corrupt corporation on the planet.

* Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem.

* Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who desire to do so.

* Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits.

* Due to Prohibition (historically proven to be an utter failure at every level), the availability of most of these mood-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.

* Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement - even whole governments, while inducing an incalculable amount of suffering and death.

* Apart from the fact that the DEA is the de facto enforcement wing of the pharmaceutical industry, the involvement of the CIA in running Heroin from Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, and Cocaine from Central America has been well documented by the 1989 Kerry Committee report, academic researchers Alfred McCoy and Peter Dale Scott, and the late journalist Gary Webb.

* It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste trillions of dollars in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets.

* The United States jails a larger percentage of it's own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes, yet it has far higher use/addiction rates than most other countries.

* As with torture, prohibition is a grievous crime against humanity. If you support it, or even simply tolerate it by looking the other way while others commit it, you are an accessory to a very serious moral transgression against humanity.

* The United States re-legalized certain drug use in 1933. The drug was alcohol, and the 21st amendment re-legalized its production, distribution and sale. Both alcohol consumption and violent crime dropped immediately as a result, and very soon after, the American economy climbed out of that same prohibition engendered abyss into which it had foolishly fallen.