10/24/15

South Dakota mired in the past

South Dakota's legislature can write a bill that would adopt legislation similar to Minnesota's medical cannabis law but worthy of Federal Drug Administration scrutiny where real medicine could be sold by pharmacies, legalize for adults then allow Deadwood and the tribes to grow under California organic standards and distribute on reservation and off-reservation properties under a compact putting the gaming commission as the administrative body to tax and regulate.

Because cannabis is illegal under federal law, and use of the term "organic" is regulated by the US Department of Agriculture, a licensed cannabis business cannot be certified as USDA organic.

In my view edibles should only be available to patients suffering from debilitating diseases, disorders or conditions and be dispensed by pharmacists and taxed like other prescriptions.

Home growing for personal enjoyment should look like this California model.

For the record, I do not support widespread growing of hemp: it is an invasive species and capable of overgrowing native grasses.

Tribes can do this by themselves and the South Dakota Legislature should be kept out of the cannabis loop completely unless Deadwood chooses to be the non-Native test bed off-reservation. Nations trapped in South Dakota and in other states with off-reservation properties are already testing cannabis law.

Tribal casinos are already in the banking business as the cannabis industry is looking for places to enter the financial markets.

Jonathan Ellis said on an Argus Leader's 100 Eyes broadcast that cannabis sales could produce more revenue than video lootery does without the social costs.

Whatever perceived evils surrounding cannabis already exist and continuing to reward a black market is neither conservative nor sustainable. Unrestrained capitalism has killed millions during the war on drugs with zero results: a moral hazard instead of self-reliance.

A recent study has found that cannabis is not a gateway to abuse of stronger compounds.
The researchers based their conclusions on data gathered from Monitoring the Future, an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes and values of American high school students. Roughly 15,000 high school seniors are assessed each year. Paul Armentano, deputy director of the pro-marijuana group NORML, said the study findings weren't surprising. "Science has consistently shown that environmental factors, such as ready access to other illicit substances, and personal traits, such as a propensity toward risk-seeking behavior, are associated with the decision to move from marijuana to other illicit substances," Armentano said. "But marijuana's drug chemistry likely does not play a significant role, if any role, in this decision." [Marijuana Study Counters 'Gateway' Theory]
But pull numbers out of your rectum and distribute them to fellow inmates at your own peril: go to the South Dakota Democratic Party's website, Facebook page and twitter feed and see evidence of a lack of leadership, even lifelessness.

Despite lies from SDGOP, video lootery, payday loan sharks, domestic violence and homelessness are inextricably linked putting children at risk to more catastrophic consequences far more often than has happened in states that have legalized or lessened penalties for casual use of cannabis.

South Dakota should pass a corporate income tax, reduce the number of counties to 25, turn Dakota State University into a community college, and adopt my cannabis template: the kurtz solution painted on a thumbnail.

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