Should marijuana be legalized in some states to "boost" their economy?

Legalizing marijuana has been a major topic of controversy in the United States for a long time. On Feb. 21, 2009 Assembly member Tom Ammiano introduced a bill to legalize marijuana in California. AB 390 is a Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act. AB 390 would decriminalize marijuana but regulate it like alcohol, limiting sales to those who are 21 and older. This bill would also impose a tax of $50 per--ounce
something Ammiano said could bring $1 billion annually into our cash-starved state. " It would immediately indirectly benefit the economy by freeing up billions of dollars a year for a then unneeded Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A) marijuana enforcement task-force."
After 3.6 million votes were cast, one of the top questions turned out to be a query on whether legalizing marijuana might stimulate the economy by allowing the government to regulate and tax the drug. Robert Gibbs, the White House Press Secretary said that legalizing marijuana in order to boost the current economy is a "hot" issue in the White House. On March 24, the White House said more than 64, 000 people watched President Obama answer questions in the first live Internet video chat by an American president. In this online town hall meeting Obama rejected the argument that legalizing, regulating, and taxing marijuana would be- good way to raise money in this recession. Obama just stated in direct terms he does not think legalizing pot "is a good strategy to grow our economy."
According to the Beckley Foundation, in the United States approximately three-quarters of a million citizens are arrested every year for cannabis possession, and in certain producer/transit countries, such as Mexico, the War on Drugs, of which cannabis is a component has led to a virtual state of war near the United States border. "The damage done by prohibition is worse than from the substance itself," said Amanda Feilding, the founder of the Beckley Foundation.

CNBC released a documentary with Trish Regan, anchor and reporter, called Marijuana Inc.. In this documentary, Regan goes behind the scenes to explore the inner workings of this secretive industry, focusing on Northern California`s "Emerald Triangle," now the marijuana capital of the United States of America. The pot business, much of it legal under state law, now makes up as much as two-thirds of the local economy. In addition, Jessica Corry, a Republican activist appeared on Fox News to speak about her point of view about marijuana prohibition and the growing national debt. In this debate, Corry suggests that marijuana is not nearly as bad as alcohol, or prescription pills.
Overall, the government is making a fortune on the sales and tax revenues of cigarettes. We all know cigarettes not only kill the people who smoke them, but they also harm the people around those who smoke them. The government has legalized this deadly drug called tobacco, but yet keeps rejecting the legalization of marijuana and the billions of dollars to be made from the herb.

Is the world going to end on Dec. 21, 2012?

For centuries the prophecies of Nostradamus have been a part of the historical record. Some of Nostradamus predictions include: World War II, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Katrina, Sep. 11, 200, etc. A recently discovered book of Nostradamus, or the lost book of Nostradamus, reveals drawings that may have clues of what will happened on Dec. 21, 2012. These drawings give us warnings about what might happen in the future. According to Nostradamus, on Dec. 21, 2009 the Sun will align with the center of the Milky Way galaxy in a rare astronomical phenomenon. This phenomenon only occurs once every 26-thousand years and it is called the galactic alignment. Our view of the stars changes over time because the Earth is rotating. Click here to view the lost book of Nostradamus.

" The world feels like we are approaching some kind of a passage. I think what is at the root of this, is the galactic alignment," said John Jenkins, author of Maya Cosmogenesis 2012. " The Mayas were famous for their grasp in astronomy. Like the Maya and other cultures before that, Nostradamus looked at the stars and saw danger," said Jenkins. In his quatrain 5:98, Nostradamus writes: at a latitude of 48 degrees at the end of Cancer. There is a very great drought. Fish in the sea, river and lake boiled hectic from fire in the sky. Nostradamus is pointing out that there are going to be three eclipses in 2012, a total eclipse of the Sun, eclipse of Venus against the Sun, and the eclipse of the Sun in the center of the galaxy. " Nobody in the 1600 knew that we had a galaxy, especially that it was a spiral galaxy and yet the lost book shows the image of the spiral galaxy which is the Milky Way," said Joseph Jochmans, a Maya scholar.

In one of the final drawings in the lost book of Nostradamus, Nostradamus is looking at the book of life, underneath the book are three women, the three fates. The Greeks had a myth that the three women were the ones weaving time and destiny. Scholars believe that Nostradamus is trying to tell people we have a choice, and this choice will determine our fate in the future. In the final drawing there are only two fates, and the wheel of time does not have any more spokes which means it will fall off. The third aspect in the drawing is that the book of life is empty. The book of life is a symbol from the Bible. Some scholars believe the Bible holds a coded message about our future.
In 1994, three Israeli mathematicians discovered number patterns that American author Michael Drosnin uses to pin point what he believes is a direct biblical reference to the end date of the Mayan calendar. Drosin laid out all the characters of the particular portion of the Bible, and the fact that the world ends in 2012 did cross.
All Nostradamus, the Mayans, and the Egyptians did is warn us about what is coming in the future. It is up to human beings what our destiny is going to be. The empty book of life in the last drawing might mean that this is a new beginning. Perhaps, the end of the world is not coming.