Fuel prices and the Budget

LETTER SUBMITTED TO THE LOS ANGELES TIMES
MARCH 21, 2008

Letter to the Editor:

RE: Fuel prices and the Budget

Has anyone out there figured out how much fuel, and therefore money, could be saved by a 60 mile per hour speed limit for cars and 55 mile per hour for trucks--enforced? This is like biting the bullet people. We are at war, inflation is upon us. Better mileage cars are on the horizon, but we can act now. Hire 1,000 more Highway Patrol Officers, use camera technology and education to enforce the new law. Make cars more fuel efficient and not faster. Accidents will go down, again less drain on the economy. This is an equal opportunity law, everyone must slow down on the highway.

This next part is for Governor Schartzenegger. Put the people’s initiative law on the ballot so the people of California have a chance to vote on the idea of legalizing hemp and marijuana in California . Here is what we get: Tens of millions of dollars saved in incarceration costs says the Legislative Analyst and the Attorney General in the initiative summary. What these Analysts didn’t tell the people is that the hemp crop is worth billions of dollars to California ’s economy. Hemp makes fuel alcohol we can run in cars and power plants, hemp fiber can replace much cotton and save enough water to expand hemp growing and food production. That’s billions and it might be much more when we factor in the research and development money that will flow to the first state to legalize the entire Cannabis plant.

This part is for the California Legislature. You have passed hemp bill twice, just as happened with medical marijuana, a reluctant governor stands in the way of an entirely new and exciting resource. You can also put the people’s initiative on the ballot for the people to vote into law, and just as the medical marijuana law has been federal government proof (unchallenged in 12 years), the hemp law can go into effect immediately. Give the people the opportunity to bypass a reluctant governor. Let me remind you, our representatives, that we possess the strongest inalienable rights in the world. Our inalienable rights to life, liberty, property, privacy, happiness and safety should override all your fears about what is the right thing to do.


Richard M. Davis, Curator
USA Hemp Museum