America, Profiting From Pot, At Long Last

COW SHIT, COTTON CANDY, POPCORN, AND TOBACCO have traditionally defined the olfactory sense at the various state fairs, but the banishment of tobacco from mainstream American society, and the advent of marijuana have started changing familiar aromas. Powerful pot tends to overpower all other odors, and people tend to love the pungent sweetness. Since recreational marijuana was legalized in Oregon in 2014, dispensaries have sprouted up all over the state, including the state fair, as vendors set up sampling booths. A booming marijuana economy is creating jobs and raining tax revenue into public coffers, and that can only be good. A little public oversight of politicians spending is the other necessary component to state financial health. Vendors at the fair describe the purpose of their presence as going about their business in such a way that most people think: "what's all the fuss about?" And that's exactly what people are doing, including older,more conservative anti-marijuana types. I joined NORML, the national Organization for the Reform of marijuana Laws, over forty years ago, and ever since, have been wondering what's taking so long. In the seventies I predicted that surely by the nineteen nineties pot would be legal. Now, I don't even know if NORML still exists, I never hear anything about it,but if it does, it might not need or want to much longer. its dream is coming true, at long last. One remembers the sudden disappearance of gay marriage advocacy groups, mission accomplished, when the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage over a year ago. Marijuana legalization is appearing on ballots in state after state, in a glorious display of state's rights. The federal government will catch up,, when a more progressive Congress, wanting to do more than destroy Barack Obama, is elected. The United states will get a huge increase in gross domestic product, small businesses, jobs, and tax revenue. Marijuana lowers blood pressure, and the cannabis plant makes the best paper and clothing, and many medicines. It replenishes the soil with nutrients, instead of depleting it, like cotton and tobacco. Its a perfect crop, and a true super plant, a wonder of nature. and just think, I only had to wait a little over forty years.