cannabisnews.com: Boston U. Study Shows Marijuana Legalization Boston U. Study Shows Marijuana Legalization Posted by CN Staff on September 05, 2003 at 08:48:11 PT Press Release Source: U.S. Newswire Greenfield, Mass. -- As Massachusetts cities and towns struggle to keep teachers in public schools and police officers on the streets, a Boston University study shows $121 million could be made available to local communities if the state stopped arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana trafficking and use. The study, commissioned by Change the Climate, a non-profit organization that uses outdoor advertising to educate people about marijuana issues, also shows that an additional $17 million could be raised if marijuana sales were regulated and taxed. The study was conducted by Boston University Economics Professor Jeffery Miron. "My study looks at real expenses associated with marijuana prohibition," says Professor Miron.Change the Climate commissioned the study to see how much money taxpayers could save if the Commonwealth legalized marijuana. Joseph White, Founder and Executive Director of Change the Climate explains, "So many talented teachers are being laid off while politicians in Boston raise their salaries and cut funds for local services. This study shows there are new monies available. All we need is for politicians to show some creativity and have some guts.""We want Massachusetts voters to know that they have choices that affect the quality of life in their communities, and one of those choices is whether taxpayers pay for public services like police and fire protection or for arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana violations," continues White, a father of three who lives in Greenfield.White explains, "The economic downturn in Massachusetts has taken a huge toll in local communities. This study provides an answer to how the state can provide some financial relief to cities and towns."In October 2002, Professor Miron conducted a study that showed $24 million in tax savings if marijuana was decriminalized. After his report was completed, 39 Massachusetts state legislative districts voted in favor of non-binding resolutions to decriminalize marijuana.Change the Climate is a national organization of parents and business people who believe that restrictive and counter-productive marijuana laws endanger our children and squander our tax dollars. Change the Climate has conducted advertising campaigns in Washington DC, California and Nevada. It has also sued the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) for denying advertising space to the organization in a much-watched First Amendment case.Contact: Joseph White, 413-774-4080 or 413-773-0555 (cell) Bob Schaeffer, 239-395-6773 both of Change the Climate.Complete Title: Boston University Study Shows Marijuana Legalization Saves Massachusetts Taxpayers $138 MillionMore information on other advertising campaigns, including downloadable ads, is available at: http://www.changetheclimate.org/ Professor Miron's report is also available for download at: http://www.changetheclimate.org/Source: U.S. NewswirePublished: September 5, 2003Copyright 2003 U.S. Newswire Website: http://www.usnewswire.com/ Contact: http://www.usnewswire.com/contactusn.htmlChange The Climatehttp://www.changetheclimate.org/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #23 posted by FoM on September 15, 2003 at 21:40:46 PT ekim I believe the day will come when a movie is made. I sure hope so. [ Post Comment ] Comment #22 posted by ekim on September 15, 2003 at 21:14:41 PT i hope that changethecliment will fund a movie that will show what is happning in this country. we are in debt as far as the eyes can see. yet the dea wants to outlaw hemp - we are being asked to give up more and more of our hard earned rights,with cooked studies from incompentant quaks. this study must be made for all the States and run as a demand of what the people want in the next leader of the Free World. [ Post Comment ] Comment #21 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 22:21:52 PT Petard That was very well said. [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by Petard on September 05, 2003 at 22:03:28 PT Part of the Polititcal problem is We have bought into a flawed system of election campaigning. Think about it for a minute.We are told by candidates, "Vote for me cuz I stand for this and that. I'll promote this and won't go for that."Shouldn't they be ASKING US for what WE WANT since we choose them to represent us? Isn't their individual opinion only supposed to be one vote on any issue? They are elected to represent the people but they only represent themselves and their personal agendas. Hell, if the people want something as outrageous as say, public hangings of all convicted traffic violators, isn't it the politicians duty to propose the legislation and support it, regardless of their personal opinion?But no. We listen to them debate each other on what they individually declare to be THEIR priorities without their even asking us what we want them to prioritize. Then we go and cast our votes based on THEIR agendas. How many candidates actually ASK US what they should or should not support? ZERO that's how many. No wonder there is voter apathy, nobody asked them what they want. That's akin to going to the store and having the store tell you what to buy. "Excuse me sir/m'aam, that item is not on our list of items you can buy, you'll not be allowed to purchase that." Sound familiar? [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 21:09:56 PT Petard It breaks my heart sometimes that we all must jump thru hoops. In this day and age Cannabis shouldn't be an issue that's how I feel. [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by Arthropod on September 05, 2003 at 21:04:24 PT: Easy to find where the Cnews server is... Just run a simple tracert on it. I had to go through three canadian isps to get to the tucows server that Cnews is hosted on. [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by Petard on September 05, 2003 at 21:03:25 PT FoM Ain't it a shame that in America, Land of the Free*, that in order to protect free speech on the net things have to be located out of the country, and listed under organizations with legal counsel on staff, for safety reasons? *Free = with paid membership/subscription, or purchase, surcharges may apply, offer void where prohibited, terms subject to change without notice, renewal discounts available in some areas, group discounts available for those affilitated with lobbyist organizations, 10% off for senior citizens on Tuesdays, look for our coupon in the yellow pages, all other offers void. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 20:08:45 PT Petard Thank you. It makes sense what you are saying but I don't understand it very well. CNews was in the states originally but now has been put in Mapincs. name for legal protection for me. Even though this is my site it doesn't say it is. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by Petard on September 05, 2003 at 20:02:15 PT Tucows IS Canadian But they have an office in Flint too. Tucows has the Domain registration for C-news and runs it through baremetal.com (which Tucows owns). Same thing for DrugPolicyCenter.com, alhough DPC .com is actually listed as being owned and maintained by Tucows outright. So their hardware is in Canada, their main offices are in Canada, most of the employees are in Canada. The Flint office is probably to qualify for American stock exchange purposes, so they can have a location accessible for legal processes under US jurisdiction (like an Agent of Service, the person who recieves supenas, summonses, etc. on behalf of the company). Could always call the MI Secretary of State to verify that after the weekend since their business liscenses and officers of the corporation must be registered in the public records.All the above can be found out through 1st doing a WhoIs search for the doamin name stats then looking up Tucows Inc.. Tucows has a lot more info available since they are listed on the NASDAQ too, including some financial info. (I used to do lookups of all types as a part of my job duties for banks and finance companies and attorneys.) A person can find out all sorts of stuff about all sorts of people/organizations if they know where to look. [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by The GCW on September 05, 2003 at 19:38:05 PT Give the cop a bone. This assessment is not limited to Massachusetts. It is not limited to America and may not be limited to earth.Either way the gov. is going to get its cut.Right now, it is by way of the po leece and de judge, through what amounts to theft. Po leece and courts / judges / lawyers get the loot & THE SUPERPLANT. This is not the way the gov should get funds...The right way is to allow citizens to go to the maryjane mart and buy it, and pay the tax. Buy a carton and pay more tax. Buy a truckload and have some parties... and pay the tax, like the keg. This is the way the gov. should get the funds from cannabis users. It is not the choice of po leece, because the right way doesn't fund po leece. Of course, once RE-legalized, I will grow it and there will only be a tax paid when I buy papers or purchase a vaporizer, or lights etc. Or when I'm at the cafe...Po leece, give Your brother a break, get a life. Get a brain. Leave the dogs alone. Get to the 1st page of the Bible and see where You fail. According to that 1st page God not only created ALL the plants for man, but for all the beasts, all the animals and that includes the dog You killed. It IS murder to kill a police dog... is that because all the police are dogs? [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 18:44:18 PT CNews Petard, CNews is on a Canadian Server. That's what I have been told. I thought I should mention it to you if you thought it was in the states. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 18:41:46 PT Petard I thought Drug Policy Central was in Canada? See how much I don't know. I just checked the email I gave them and haven't heard back so far. Maybe DPC is different then Mapinc or DrugSense. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by Petard on September 05, 2003 at 18:37:16 PT Another Tucows Product Since you've had no problems with C-News, which is also with Tucows, drugpolicycentral.com should be OK. The only concern there is the Tucows Flint, Michigan, office might be open to action from the USSA for us 'Mericains email. Then again all of us "Mericains are already open to that stuff through our ISP's anyway. Somebody at Tucows could probably set C-News up with a dedicated server mailing list in about 2 seconds or less since they were one of the original script sources for netizens anyway. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 16:51:39 PT Petard I just submitted a request for an email list for CNews. I think I did it right. http://www.drugpolicycentral.com/hosting/lists/maillist.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 16:17:20 PT Petard Thanks. That makes sense. I don't want problems with an email list. Maybe we can get one on the server CNews is on. I think I'm saying that right. I need to talk to some one and see if we can get it going. Don't know who to ask though. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Petard on September 05, 2003 at 16:10:41 PT Mailing Lists Better to set up a mailing list out of one of the C-News servers by far, or on some server in a country not that friendly with the U.S. and with a more tolerant free speech attitude. Topica, Yahoo Groups, and Coollist are likely to assist any request from the US Govt. for info on the members of mailing lists under their control, without notifying you or whoever is running the mail list. The last thing you want to do FoM is give the USSA Facists an easy and handy list of subscribers with whom they can then easily, and without warrant, and without disclosure, monitor the communications to/from. (not to mention the fine print on those hosts allowing them to sell the lists to spammers) There's several mailing list CGI/Perl programs available for free on the net. All that is required is a CGI host and some minor tweaking of the permissions and such. PHP mailing list programs are probably out there too but PHP is not as secure as Perl. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 13:53:22 PT Thanks Dankhank I found this one too. They seem like they might be the same in type. I'll try to figure it all out over the weekend. Thanks again!http://www.coollist.com/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Dankhank on September 05, 2003 at 13:43:36 PT: email list FOM I think I know what you seek ...Try http://www.topica.comhope it helps .. Hemp N Stuff [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on September 05, 2003 at 12:02:32 PT A Technical Question I've been trying to figure out how to get an email list for CNews and am not sure how. Does anyone know how this might be done? Thanks for any advice. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by John Tyler on September 05, 2003 at 09:50:30 PT making sense Cannabis, up to 30 grams, is legal in Ontario, Canada. Cannabis, up to 4 ozs., is legal in Alaska. Legalizing cannabis makes dollars and sense. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by ekim on September 05, 2003 at 09:25:14 PT a blast from the past our ol site is still up if anyone is interested in the MI effort to get three plants and three ozs here. remember now that we asked for and did not receive a penny of help form any out side group, and still got over 200,000 signers.http:/www.prayes.co------ today i called c-span a radio broadcaster that has a drive show from 6-9 in DC which follows Rush and Hanity was on Cris Core. I asked him what he thought of the debate on the recall in CA when all those present said they were for MMJ and the Dutch and Canada have issued it for med use. He said scoffingly that no serious candadate would ever vote for that and probably someone from the Marijuana party is running in the recall. He belittled the recall by saying its is good for talkshow hosts for something to talk about. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 05, 2003 at 09:24:38 PT New survey Although I much prefer Change the Climate's study, this new survey on "alcohol and drug use" is making more headlines: http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/09/05/drug.use.ap/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on September 05, 2003 at 08:54:16 PT The police already live on marijuana profits What was asset forfeiture supposed to be, other than a way to use pot proceeds to pay police salaries? It's basically a violent abusive way of taxing marijuana.They ought to get the money honestly and peacefully, by taxing and regulating marijuana, rather than by using armed warfare to seize assets and further erode the concept of private property upon which the American system was built. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment