The Plan

So, two states — Colorado and Washington state — have made (or are about to make in the case of Colorado) recreational use of marijuana perfectly legal for adults effectively putting Mary Jane in the same class of dope as that good ol' dope of the masses, alcohol.

Sounds like a good idea to us and also offers the possibility of eventual legalization for adults of all so-called "hard drugs": coke, heroin, ecstasy, methamphetamines, opium, and whathaveyou. That sounds like a good idea to us as well. It also offers the possibility of lifting this country out of its current and crushing economic difficulties, the trillion-dollar per annum national debt included, in one three-step fell swoop. The plan goes like this:

Step 1: Legalize all dope nationwide which will establish whole new industries for manufacturing, distributing, and selling FDA-approved high-quality stuff to the public OTC the sales having a fairly stiff but not at all prohibitive tax (say, 15%-20%) attached. This will, of course, have the nifty side benefit of putting out of business drug cartels worldwide and sidewalk dope dealers nationwide and reducing as well all drug-related crime nationally to near zero levels.

Step 2: Dismantle entirely the DEA and release all its thousands upon thousands of thugs and consign it and them to the rubbish bin of well-intentioned idiocies which is a far more gentle fate than either deserve.

Step 3: Issue Presidential Pardons nationwide to every convict now serving time exclusively for drug use. That will reduce by about one-half our country's prison population and with no moral problem attached. None of those prisoners should have been incarcerated in the first place.

The income and savings obtained by the above three actions alone will, within a year or five, not only wipe out the national debt but result in a surplus and at the same time boost our economy to levels it hasn't seen since [fill in the economic banner year of your choice].

It's not as far-fetched a plan as it sounds, boys and girls. All that's required is finding elected politicians with sufficient balls to set that most excellent plan in motion.

Right. Talk about far-fetched. Good luck with that.