I was sent this in an email and I share it here with thanks to my brother for sharing)...

Openly-gay actor George Takei (of Star Trek fame) is reported to have tweeted to a Washington State friend, "So you legalized both gay marriage and marijuana? Maybe that's what Leviticus meant where it says, 'A man who lies with a man should be stoned.' "

Now that's funny! Thank you, George!

But I have a further comment to share from perusal of a book published in England, in 1908, called, "The Book Of The Cottage Garden" by Charles Thronger. From Page 36...

"If distinctive habit and foliage is needed, there are annuals like the Castoroil Plant (Ricinus), which must be raised in heat and afterwards tranferred to the open border, Maize and the Hemp Plant (Cannabis), fine in groups and usually successful in town gardens."

My point here is that pot is a basically harmless plant which was used throughout history and should be absolutely reclassified by the Federal Government from a Class A Felony drug on a par with heroin and cocaine.

George Washington discusses growing hemp on his plantation. So let's lighten up a little, OK, America?

Let's make the rules for pot the same as alcohol. Same ages, same restrictions, same taxes. But don't think that legalizing it and then taxing it so expensively will do anything to alleviate the criminal gangs making billions of dollars a year.

I heard that about 30-40% of tobacco use in Washington state is untaxed, whether through personal importation from a less-taxed state, or Indian reservation cigarettes, or otherwise, people won't pay the price if there's an alternative. (The rumor is that the State will allow legal pot only if it is taxed out of existence!)

The alternative is to allow free enterprise to work! And not the free enterprise of Big Tobacco. (It's illegal to grow tobacco except for your own use, ever since Abolition! Look it up! Well, except if you have a sweetheart deal from the 1800s!)

Leave people to grow their own (and enough to supply those who can't grow their own), and leave out Big Marijuana before it ever happens!

After all, as Charles Thonger points out above, Cannabis is a simple annual for the garden!