Legalize It!

I was going to start posting today about the primary elections coming up but decided to put that off for a while to talk about Marijuana.  Let me begin by saying personally I have never smoked marijuana, I grew up in a small town and was not around it until I went to college and by that time I was just growing out of my experimenting stage.  With that being said I am totally for legalizing the use of marijuana.  We can put laws on it that says you can only smoke it on your own private property so it will not effect others, we could tax it for extra income, and just think of the amount of college students we would get transferring to Montana just for the fact they can smoke.  Along with college students think of the tourism benefits, I mean really who goes to Amsterdam for the great  culture.  No mostly people go to Amsterdam cause they can smoke weed there.  I really don't see why we haven't done this yet, the one big concern with smoking marijuana is impaired driving.  Well last time I checked we have DUI's for that sort of thing.  After doing some research on-line about the dangers of marijuana, it seems to me to be a smoke form of alcohol, the only difference is beer is a downer while marijuana is and upper.  Personally I would rather have a bunch of happy pot heads in Montana than a lot of old angry drunks.  I would really like to hear from some of our Senators and Representatives on this issue, why is it that we are not taking advantage to the extra income that this would bring in, especially since law enforcement can't control the use anyways.  I am not sure if I am just on crazy pills here or not but why don't the people we elect to do the best thing for our state not act and start doing their jobs?  Is it the whole reelection thing, I know that once you become a politician it is hardwired in your brain to think of being reelected for another term.  I think that is why people don't take risks anymore, they are so afraid of failing, but that is how we learn.  You can't always go with the sure plan, every once and a while you have to gamble, it may work out and it may not.  Either way you will stand out as a person who has the interests of their state, not themselves, in mind.  That builds trust and if people trust you are doing the right thing to benefit the state, then it doesn't matter how many time you fail you will get reelected.

Mandatory Health Care

Last night I was watching the news when I found out about the new Health Care bill. First off I have been trying to find a copy of the bill to read for myself, which I have been unable to find. A few points that I have heard about the bill is that insurance will be mandatory for everyone to get which sounds pretty socialist to me. They keep comparing this to car insurance, car insurance is mandatory "if you own a car". Since this is the land of the free there is a way to not get car insurance, you can ride your bike, or the bus maybe. Yet health insurance you will have no choice, the only way to live without it is to move out of the country or die. I have a problem with this, I personally do have health insurance and I don't plan on getting rid of it but I think this is the exact opposite of what this country stands for. We are suppose to be the land of the free but we keep making stuff mandatory and that is just anti-American. I know this isn't the biggest problem we are facing in the country right now but this really stands out to me as becoming an issue in the future. Starting with the government owning shares in the car companies then making health insurance mandatory are just the base for the country to turn toward a socialist government. All of these little changes that we may think are nothing major will eventually add up to the United States moving from a federal constitutional republic to a Socialist government.