The marijuana legalization movement has swelled into such a monstrous figure as of late, attracting the support of lawmakers, governors and even Democratic presidential candidates, that we sometimes find ourselves a bit taken back when one of these people starts spewing reefer madness.<\/p>\n
We often forget that there was once a day when popular opinion, especially among those who make our laws, was that the legalization or even the acceptance of marijuana would lead to such a crippling of the nation that we\u2019d all inevitably end up in the hottest hell once the great alien in the sky beared down. The cannabis plant was evil, or so they said, the root to a new world Babylonia, a dark society where our mothers and sisters would be pimped out on the streets for nickel bags while drug-addled fathers and sons watched every despicable moment in a pool of junkie filth.<\/p>\n
But times have changed since the days when marijuana was akin to Revelations, and now most of America is in favor of legalization. The population discovered over the decades that all of the white bread horror tales coming from the people running this country with concern to marijuana was just a load of bull. Now, around\u00a065% of the nation<\/a>\u00a0supports the idea of marijuana being legalized like alcohol and tobacco. So, imagine our surprise to learn that Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin is using tired spiels to convince the voters that legal weed isn\u2019t worth it.<\/p>\n Just last week Bevin did an interview with the radio station\u00a0WKDZ<\/a>\u00a0out of Cadiz to discuss some of the issues the state is facing. It was there that the Republican went on a full-blown tirade about how he doesn\u2019t support marijuana legalization because he believes it will lead to an uprising in homelessness, increased emergency room visits and more disease. Not only does he think that legal weed isn\u2019t a viable option for the Bluegrass State, but he also doesn\u2019t see it as the solution to paying down the state\u2019s $60 billion pension debt. Pot would be more trouble than a benefit, he indicated.<\/p>\n \u201cLook at the homelessness, look at the increases in their emergency rooms, look at the problems they have with law enforcement of bordering states,\u201d\u00a0Bevin said of Colorado\u2019s recreational marijuana law<\/a>. \u201cLook at the amount of disease and things that have spiked up as a result of people who are coming for the fact that they can smoke pot legally. Does that mean everybody who\u2019s involved in that has these problems? No. But many of them do. So we have negative things to counter as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Bevin\u2019s comments on legal marijuana and homelessness are interesting considering that Donald Burnes, founder of the Burnes Center on Poverty and Homelessness at the University of Denver, said back in 2017 that\u00a0homelessness has not increased<\/a>\u00a0in Colorado<\/a> as a result of legalization. It\u2019s not that homeless people aren\u2019t moving to the state because there is legal weed, but the group just makes up such a small percentage that it is hardly a problem. <\/p>\n \u201cThe numbers of (homeless) people from out of state has remained relatively constant\u2026 even decreasing in 2016 from 2012,\u201d Burnes said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It is worth mentioning that Bevin never clarified what disease would spread as a result of legal marijuana.<\/p>\n When it comes to using a taxed and regulated cannabis market to trim the deficit in the pension system, Bevin didn\u2019t act like he\u2019s ever entertained that as an option. He just doesn\u2019t believe Kentuckians can smoke enough weed to really make it count.<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody in Kentucky would need to smoke pot for the next 600 years,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd no one is allowed to retire in the next 600 years or allowed to incur any more interest or any more liability, and then in 600 years of pot smoking, if we did indeed allocate 100% of the money, then we would now have enough money to fund what we owe today in 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a serious solution,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s not even a solution at all. It\u2019s a ridiculous proposal.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, trying to whittle down the state\u2019s pension liability with legal marijuana alone is a stretch. So far, no Kentucky lawmaker has come out and said that marijuana would help recoup the whole wad. However, most of those in favor of legalization think the extra source of income wouldn\u2019t hurt. Some predict Kentucky could see\u00a0$100 million<\/a>\u00a0in annual marijuana tax revenue from legalization. Not to mention the creation of tens of thousands of jobs and a substantial boost to local and state economies. But when taking into account the societal tax that it would need to keep the homeless from taking over, as well as filling hospital ER\u2019s with pot overdose victims and controlling the outbreak of disease, the state would hardly benefit at all from a pot tax. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf we all wanted to gamble and smoke pot at the same time, it would still be 200 years, just to earn the money we already owe today,\u201d he told the radio station. \u201cThese are not serious solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, Bevin went from it taking 600 years to fix the pension problem with a legal marijuana system to 200 years. We guess that\u2019s progress. Although you\u2019ll have to forgive us for not trusting his math. Any revenue toward a debt is better than nothing. Furthermore, it does appear that marijuana legalization could be part of the long term solution. Depending on tax allocations, it seems reasonable that the pension debt could be lessened substantially, if not paid off, within the next decade.<\/p>\n Bevin isn\u2019t completely opposed to marijuana legalization. In February,\u00a0he said<\/a> that he would support legislation designed to create a statewide medical marijuana program. He told the attendees of a community forum that he witnessed first-hand how medicinal cannabis helped his teenage nephew during \u201ca very hard battle with cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n But Bevin, who thinks lawmakers should explore weed as an alternative to opioids, also said his support of such a bill would be contingent on how it was written.<\/p>\n Kentucky\u2019s patients \u201cshould have the ability to use a natural drug that exists to provide relief\u2026 when it is needed, where it can be prescribed and regulated as we would other such drugs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At the time, Bevin maintained that the state should not even consider \u201ctrying to financially capitalize on the medical needs of anyone in our population.\u201d So as far as recreational use is concerned, it is off the table. \u201cThere\u2019s not a chance that I would sign a legalization of recreational marijuana,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n This ultra-conservative attitude has not helped his political career. A\u00a0recent poll<\/a> shows that Bevin is the \u201cmost unpopular governor\u201d in America. He could end up losing to Democratic gubernatorial challenger Andy Beshear later this year, which might be better for the marijuana movement starting in 2020. Beshear, who serves as the state\u2019s Attorney General,\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year that \u201cno one who is caught simply possessing marijuana should ever go to jail, or should ever go to prison.\u201d<\/p>\n Beshear\u00a0supports<\/a>\u00a0the legalization of medical marijuana.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, does your state have legal cannabis?<\/p>\n The post Kentucky Gov. Thinks Legal Weed Will Lead to Homelessness & Disease<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The marijuana legalization movement has swelled into such a monstrous figure as of late, attracting the support of lawmakers, governors and even Democratic presidential candidates, that we sometimes find ourselves a bit taken back when one of these people starts spewing reefer madness. We often forget that there was onceContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,1047,699,687,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37359"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37360,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37359\/revisions\/37360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Kentucky Gov. Thinks Legal Weed Will Lead to Homelessness & Disease<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"