Proposition 19 Will Destroy 200,000 California Jobs
DEA Raids California Home
Vote No On Proposition 19
Prop 19 will create new and intrusive government regulations while destroying one of the most lucrative industries in California. It’s another populist initiative that seduces voters into approving more unnecessary, job-killing regulations while inviting federal agents to kick down the doors of ordinary citizens. Like Obama’s knee jerk off-shore drilling ban and regulations that put more than 10,000 people out of work in Louisiana and Texas, Prop 19 regulations will destroy jobs.
Ending the prohibition will have a devastating impact on the growers and dealers who have built companies and careers producing and distributing Cannabis as well as other people whose livelihood depends on the marijuana industry. By allowing local governments to issue regulations affecting millions of consumers, Prop 19 will destroy thousands of small businesses in the Emerald Triangle that depend on cannabis dollars, such as the community BMW and Mercedes dealers, massage therapists, gourmet restaurants and retail stores.
Javier Peña, DEA Special Agent in charge of eradication in Mendocino from 2004-2008 summarized the economic importance of the marijuana industry:
“Pot is the money maker. It’s hard to get the young kids to work at fast-food places because they’re out tending these marijuana groves. They’re cutting the plants. They’re seeding. They’re trimming the buds. They’re driving around $40,000, $50,000 vehicles—and it’s all because they’re helping these marijuana growing operations. You have a lot of young people making $50,000, $100,000, $300,000. Cash.”
“Growers and dealers are tired of being type cast as villains,’ said one young grower as he scrambled some tofu for breakfast. “My girlfriend and I dropped out of college 18 months ago and we made almost $250,000 last year. I hope to double that this year. People say we are are only making money because pot is against the law and that our jobs are somehow less valuable to society than factory workers or computer programmers, but we are just trying to make a living. The lame stream media demonize us the same way they did Capone and the Chicago mob during prohibition, but there were hardly any drug related shootings up here in the last decade. Americans have a constitutional right to make money and it shouldn’t matter if you do it cutting down 2,000 year old trees, drilling holes in the ground to extract 200 million year old fossils, making wine or growing weed.”
Estimates of the value of the marijuana industry vary widely, from $10 billion a year all the way up to $120 billion. The average value of the crop, assessed with different methodologies, puts annual figures for the U.S. industry at around $35 billion and the California crop alone at about $14 billion. This money fuels high paying jobs for hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom would otherwise have low skilled, low paying jobs in fast food and service industries. While removing the prohibition on recreational use in favor of a regulatory approach like that of alcohol and tobacco may increase demand slightly, it will immediately reduce prices by at least 90%. As Peña puts it:
One of the main reasons for marijuana’s enormous profits stems from one simple fact: Pot is illegal … individuals that choose to traffic in marijuana are taking a risk (of being arrested). They must be compensated for that risk via inflated profits.
Even the most vocal marijuana advocates agree that, should it become a legal commodity, the industry will be devastated. Dale Gieringer, head of the California’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, (NORML), predicts the actual value of marijuana could plummet. “It really isn’t worth more than a stem of parsley,” he says. “It’s not expensive to grow. It doesn’t cost a lot.”
Say no to Proposition 19 and protect the hundreds of thousands of hard working people who have no other employable skills but still manage to scrape by in the cash economy. In today’s economy, we cannot afford new government regulations that will put people out of work and destroy a home grown industry that has thrived in California for more than 40 years. 25 years ago, the federal government’s Campaign Against Marijuana Production (CAMP) caused widespread devastation to local industry, real estate, and local schools; it took over a decade for the industry and the region to recover. Legalizing imports while inviting millions of California citizens to suddenly become marijuana producers will be a one-two punch that causes widespread devastation in Northern California, where the outgoing agriculture commissioner of Mendocino County estimates that marijuana production is responsible for about 2/3rds of all economic activity in the county.
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8 Responses to “Proposition 19 Will Destroy 200,000 California Jobs”
good. I'm sick of paying 60,000% markups on cannabis just to support some idiot who can't seem to do anything other than trim.
"Ending the prohibition will have a devastating impact on the growers and dealers who have built companies and careers producing and distributing Cannabis as well as… the community BMW and Mercedes dealers, massage therapists, gourmet restaurants and retail stores.
The argument is now invalidating Capitalism. And defending drug dealers.
How am I invalidating Capitalism? You mean because the Marijuana Tax Act was passed to suppress one industry to the advantage of another industry? Because regulation picks winners and losers? Because I suggest that we need prohibition in place for growers and dealers to make boat loads of cash?
This article doesn't even mention that police will now have to devote their energies towards fighting more dangerous criminals, and that prisons may become less of a disincentive due to a lack of over-crowding.
These pot-heads are selfish in the extreme; disregarding the livelihoods of DEA agents, prison guards, the alcohol industry, and the hospitals that needs a steady supply of the sick.
im so glad i live in Canada to avoid idiots like you….
This guy is a genius. His satire is so subtle that it's almost impossible to detect, yet if you read carefully, there really is only one way to interpret these articles: pure satire.
Props to you sir, pun intended.
This is quite hilarious. Anyone that reads the bit about protecting the BMW dealerships and the massage therapists and still considers this to not be satire is DUMB.
VOTE YES ON PROP 19 ON NOVEMBER 2! SAVE CALIFORNIA'S BROKEN FINANCIAL SYSTEM AND STOP PUNISHING THE PEOPLE WHO PREFER TO SMOKE THAN DRINK!
You ignore the countless jobs that will be created if passed…good job at a failing article