This post and my support may come as a surprise to some, its not a topic that I am often vocal about, and considering I am so into endurance sports and working out this may seem strange to some, but (and this will put me out on a limb) I fully support the legalization of marijuana.

Personally I could care less if you or someone else smokes, but I am under the belief that recreational use by a responsible adult is no more harmful than someone (an adult) having a few drinks and smoking a bunch of cigarettes.

Of course I am sure that many would disagree with that opinion, and everyone is entitled to their own, this is just mine. All I ask is that you keep one thing in mind while reading this post, I am only referring to one bust, so please try and think of this times 5 or even 10, there is a bigger picture here.

However after reading about this recent marijuana bust and hearing how many officers were involved and how much the marijuana was worth I began to think a little more, and it almost seems like a no-brainer that it should be legalized. I would also add that should it be legalized, it would need to be sold in a manner similar to cigarettes or alcohol.

I read about the bust, which was local to me on the WCTV.tv website and I cannot understand the money involved here, and just how the government, both local and federal can think that this is money well spent. Let me explain…

According to the story details, the police “raided 62 Tampa-area homes” which I can only imagine cost the department quite a bit in pay, both regular and overtime. I am not knowledgeable in this area, but I would imagine that at a minimum there were 10 officers at each house. That would mean that this 62 house raid used 620 officers, even rounding down quite a bit we are looking at say 500, that sounds like a lot of pay to me. I am sure you can think of some other areas that these officers could have been and how that pay could have been spent.

Next, according to the story details, they were able to arrest “about 70 people” and “more are expected.” This means that 70+ people will have to get processed into the jail system and they will all have to have their day in court. I would also venture to guess that at least a handful of them will have court appointed lawyers. This sounds like a lot of money being spent by the local government to handle these cases. Again I am sure we can think of many other places that money could have gone.

Next up, according to the story details, the marijuana had an “estimated street value of $13 million.” Think of that, $13 million dollars, that is not a small amount by any means. If this was legally grown and legally sold in this area that money could do a lot for the community. Not to mention if it was sold legally it could also be taxed, turning that $13 million into even more money.

Finally the story also mentioned that the people who were growing the marijuana were “illegally tapping into power lines” and that resulted in “more than a million dollars worth of electricity” being stolen. Lets see, who will have to pay for that, the electric company and the honest customers because eventually the rates will go up.

Basically, if marijuana was legal;

• They could have saved all the pay for the officers raiding those homes.
• They could have saved all the pay for the people that had to process those arrested into the jail system.
• They could have saved the pay for the judges, court appointed attorneys and court officials that have to deal with these cases.
• They could have legally sold and taxed that $13 million dollars worth of drugs.
• They could have also given that million dollar plus worth of stolen electricity to the rightful owner, because if marijuana was legal it would be a business and that electricity would not have been stolen, it just would have been a business expense.

So smoke or not, personally I do not care, but its hard to argue that this is a shitload of money being spent to take it away, and its a shame because with some proper legislation that money could go somewhere else that it needed even more.

[WCTV.tv]