John Shaw
Republican Candidate - Florida Senate
Issues - Economy:
John Shaw believes that a significant portion of Florida's budget deficit can be eliminated with a revamped drug policy that legalizes industrial hemp and marijuana. The money currently spent on interdiction of marijuana and the prosecution and incarceration of offenders should be diverted to a public health initiative that would, over the long haul, significantly reduce the demand for marijuana and free up billions of dollars for the pressing needs of this state, such as education and social services.
Economically speaking, we are in a crisis.
I'm sure I don't have to remind you about our gas prices. I don't even need to remind you that we have a national debt of over 11 trillion dollars. I need not refresh you on our declining stock market, or brief you on the current value of the American Dollar.
I do feel obligated to remind you, though, of the money we are currently wasting.
These figures are for this year alone. Creating a demand for prison systems for their economic dependence is not exactly the ideal business model, and yet, that is what we have done by providing this war on ourselves. Ending marijuana prohibition would not only be the most economically responsible decision this country could make, but it would also enable us to legally investigate hemp as an alternative fuel source. The following is an excerpt from a paper my mother wrote on this issue:
"If America's farmers and city growers planted crops of industrial hemp today, within 120 days we could harvest an abundant new source of clean-burning hemp seed fuel oil that is safe, efficient, renewable, sustainable, edible, uniquely nutritious, and easy to grow. The cultivation of hemp oil could end our dependency on nonrenewable petroleum fuel, a dependency that has been dictated to us since 1937."
Please read her full article, here.
It is clear to me what needs to be done in order to solve our economic crisis. I am proposing the legalization of marijuana and hemp so that our financial burdens will be, at the very least, somewhat alleviated (for lack of a better description). I am confident, however, that legalizing these two plants will offer us much more in terms of economic growth and stability.
Please read more about marijuana policy and its reflection on many important issues here.
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