Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 27, 2010

That will be one happy compost pile!

If prop 19 passes I doubt it will make much difference one way or the other. I live in the heart of growing country, you can already buy pot openly. The people most violently opposed to 19 are the growers, who are worried about Gov. regulations.

To answer the debate yesterday about the founding documents being printed on hemp paper… They were drafted on hemp paper, but the official copies were on parchment.

I can help with that composting there Zonk……

What’s with all the BS Spammers? Can’t get a snark in edgewise.

Need a hand with quality control?

[6 Spams out of 11 messages. Hormel should sue.]

..let’s not go to word I.D…I’d rather have the spammers…

barticle35 said, If prop 19 passes I doubt it will make much difference one way or the other. I live in the heart of growing country, you can already buy pot openly. The people most violently opposed to 19 are the growers, who are worried about Gov. regulations. —

Doubtless worried about Gov. regulations cutting into their profit margins. That’s a point some people seem to have a hard time recognizing: Those merchants who trade in illegal goods - be it “black markets” of rationed goods during wars, alcohol, pot, harder drugs, etc. - like their illegal and essentially corrupt environment just fine, thank you. (Yes, corrupt. Pot sold openly, huh? And I’m to believe the local cops don’t know anything about it?) My bet is the pot-grower’s situation is not as idyllic as some perceptions seem to hold; the gangland atmosphere during Prohibition is probably a closer model.

Instead of composting, which takes too long, I think it should all be burned. I’ll be standing downwind when it happens.

MAN, my arms getting tierd throwing all these flags!!!!!!!

It’s not helping my carpal tunnel either.

Can’t growing be privatized? I want to buy into the first IPO! Ticker: WEED (POT already exists)!

May Baal come down in his majesty and make the spammers die a horrible and lingering death.

flagflagflagflag. this guy has soaked the gocomics server! it’s getting so that every comic has more spam and griping than wise-cracks about the strip. yeah: legalize dope, and watch the bottom drop out of the pricing. it’ll be nice to buy a decent 5 finger bag for 5 bucks (a la the 60’s) that isn’t 80 percent alfalfa and laced with strychnine.

What I don’t get is why gocomics can’t just delete the spams. Surely they can tell the difference between a spam and a snark.

The anti-spam diatribes are becoming more tiresome than the actual spam.

One of the main reasons marijuana was criminalized was because Randolph Hearst wanted his magazine empire built with paper and cotton - which resources he had control of. He had no control over hemp - it grew everywhere.

It will be a lot harder to impose government regulation (and taxes) on what is essentially a hardy weed that can grow anywhere, any time. Tobacco only grows in certain areas and hard liquor is difficult to make. So if Prop 19 passes I will watch with interest.

if Navada can tax the girls, the rest of the country can tax hemp as gown for medical purposes…. norhing like a new tax source for legalizing something.

When growing marijuana (or selling it) becomes legalized, you know the gov’t is going to step in and tax the heck out of it, like they do tobacco, alcohol and gasoline.

allgurka, that is certainly true, but the state will need the money. My understanding is that in California, the state picks up the tab for most drug rehab programs. If that’s the case, with all the new stoners they’ll have to cure, they’ll probably lose money no matter how much tax they collect. Legal or not, no business can be forced to hire someone with drugs in their system, so sooner or later many folks who get newly addicted will want to get drug free.

And of course if they tax mj too high, people won’t buy the “legal” stuff, but will smuggle it as they do today. Will Californians have a “Stockton TCP Party” and throw the tax-stamped pot of T into the San Joaquin river?

RichardCRussell,

Ditto.

I don’t think there will be that many new stoners; it’s easy enough to get that the people who want it are already using it. I was hearing about leaders in Mexico and Colombia opposing Prop. 19, and I know it may not do all we hope, but we’ve got to start somewhere; things are BROKEN, and someone’s got to start the conversation. I hope California will pass it, though frankly I’m not holding my breath.

Heh – no pun intended.

pearlandpeach and algurka: I live in a state where medical marijuana is legal, and if you buy it from a licensed distributor, you pay sales tax on it. And that’s on top of what the government makes from the licensing fee - $3,000 annually.

jackdohany and others,

My guess is that GoComics does delete the spam. It is 1:30PM EDT and there is only one spam.

That was interesting, I tried to flag the one John mentioned & my flag didn’t seem to register. I hit refresh & the spam was gone. They’re working on it. Probably delete the user account if all of the comments are flagged. Good idea, using the ham handle for a user name.

I got a robo-call from No on 19. I wished there was a human on the other end so I could laugh in their face. But I doubt they’ll raise much tax money from everyone’s 5’by5’ farm. Are they going to go door to door inspecting flower pots?

Re: the spammers. It has been getting worse. For a long time thre was only one, now……. And one had the gall to thank us for our support. Hipocritical MF!! All they have to do is change one or two letters/numbers to be a new account.

My youngest brother and I grew some pot back in the early ’70s, in Placer County, NE of Sacramento. Pretty much isolated, If anybody drove into the yard, they were there to see us or they were lost. One day a small plane flew over, not that low, either, but my brotther freaked and pulled it all up. Shame, too, because even immature it was some good s__t!!

What a waste, Zonker’s not thinking about all the poor straight people in China.

The prohibition of marijuana has been as destructive and disruptive to the country as the prohibition of alcohol, and there’s no reason for it not to end, also.

Nemesys seems to think MJ has a unique set of negatives to employers and the state that the more toxic alcohol doesn’t have. If weed were legal, Edgar Allen Poe would probably be alive today. Alcohol is bad for your liver, causes risky sexual behavior, decreased productivity, impaires driving, and leads to belligerency. How many people here can say with certitude that alcohol didn’t play a role in their conception? … and don’t get me started on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.

I use to wonder what Nemesys was smoking when I read his post, but now I know It was the whiskey talking. Count the posts and that’s the number of martinis. Nemesys you shouldn’t mix like that. You don’t want to end up like Poe do you?

Got to go and check out Timmy “Big Bud” Lincecum. I can visualize him showing up to the ball park on game day with his skate board.

If marijuana was truly legal, it would indeed grow wild. Vacant lots now full of kochia and Palmer amaranth would be joined by cannabis.

Try and tax THAT.