                               TAX ME!
 
          The State, Local, and Federal Governments are going broke trying
to pay for grandoise salaries and programs whose results are dubious at best.
A large portion of these monies is presently going to fight the "moral" "war
on drugs."  The cost of this war is similar to other "moral" wars of the past,
with the first casualty being Freedom of the Individual.
          One of the "substances" this war is aimed at is the Hemp Plant, more
commonly called "marijuana" since the coining of that phrase in the 30's by
a lumbering journalist, Randolph Hearst, who wanted to cut down trees and sell
newspapers with stories that would have had him sued out of existence if it 
were done today.  With stories like "Marijuana Makes Black Men Rape White 
Women" and "Marijuana and Jazz, the Voodoo of the Black Man," Hearst encited
the nation and Prohibition was on the march once again, less than ten years 
after the nation had arisen in anger and struck down the "alcohol prohibition"
laws because of the violence and crime they _CREATED_.
          In 1829, import duties and tariffs on Hemp paid $10 million into the 
U.S. Treasury, a considerable sum for the economy of those days.  John Quincy
Adams and Henry Clay both stated that for the farmer, there was "no crop" they
could grow on their land that was as profitable, environmentally sound, and
nationally beneficial as Hemp.  Mr. Adams even stated that it was an "antidote"
to many forms of "devouring insects."  The oil, food, and fiber produced by 
this plant were considered "protected national resources" up to and including
the Second World War and Hemp was grown by 4H children at government request.
          The system is presently being "taxed" by the exorbitant salaries of
"Drug Warriors" (Maryland's Drug Czar gets $80,000 a year to "just say no")
during a period of depression roughly equal to the Great Depression of the 30's
with no tax relief or "war boom" to pull it out.
          The only answer is for the "politico-evangelists" to get off their
high horses (high on political power) and get back to the good sense that made
this country great.  When people want something, you give it to them and tax
it.  The tax relief or "peace dividend" of the "drug war" has the potential to
eliminate the need for wood pulp paper, petroleum oil, and a large percentage
of the court costs, enforcement costs, and incarceration costs presently being
borne by the property owners. The tax potential of the Hemp crop alone could 
replace IRS and Social Security as revenue producers for the Federal Government.
          The only reason this has not been done as of yet is because of the 
political figure's need for the "Campaign dollar" generated by oil, chemical, 
and, yes, the "legal drug" market in the U.S. today.  So people continue to 
take Prozac instead of pot for stress and the police enhance their budgets by
confiscating cash and property from innocent citizens under laws that find them
guilty unless they can prove themselves innocent.
          The Hemp plant will eventually become "legal" around the globe as the
only crop capable of providing all the resources of a growth economy.  The only
question is will the U.S. wake up and tax it, thus surviving this turmoil 
induced by greedy businessmen, or will it fall under the weight of cannibalizing
its own children?
          There's a plant out there screaming "Tax ME" but the Administrator/
Evangelists are refusing to because of an addiction to wood pulp paper, acid
rain, and petroleum pollution!
          I guess Grandma's good sense has gone the way of the Dodo along with
her cannabis hemp long underwear!
 
Larry Monaghan
Human Environmental Mandate Proponents
1004 E. Preston St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
BBS:(301) 685-2894
Voice: (301) 547-6706
