Great Oaks from tiny Acorns grow

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Sometimes I see a story and I think it's no big deal. Then I hear it three days later, and it becomes an "Oh My God", moment. That's how the following story hit me.
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Today's culture warriors have better things to argue about than pot-smoking hippies, yet federal marijuana laws are still stuck in the Nixon-era days when conservatives feared that reefer madness was destroying the minds of America's youth. Amid that time warp, efforts by California and other states to nudge Washington in the direction of more sensible drug laws have largely been welcome. But whether or not you're in the camp that thinks marijuana should be legalized, a proposal to regulate and tax its sale as a way of helping to balance California's budget is an idea whose time has not come.

A bill from Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco -- where else?) that would do precisely that was introduced Monday. It would, first, decriminalize the possession and sale of marijuana under state law, and, second, set up a system for regulating and taxing it. The sales and taxation part only happens, though, if the federal government decriminalizes marijuana too, or at least allows states to make their own decisions about the drug.
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Ammiano and his supporters argue that the state is losing out on more than $1 billion a year in tax revenues because its biggest cash crop, marijuana, is illegal and therefore not taxable.
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And here's the weird part. Our new Attorney General, Eric "don't be a racial coward" Holder, is telling California that the DEA is going to quit bothering the Medical Marijuana Clinics.
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In my mind though, it gets more Twilight Zone twisted.
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What if, given the bizarre thought patterns of liberals, the unintended benefit of this is the states taking draconian powers AWAY from the feds, and giving it to the themselves, the local liberals? Suppose this is a chink in the armor of the federal power structure?
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Bet you are thinking, "...Steve's finally LOST it. His choo choo has disappeared around the bend...poor bastard, the pressure got to him...[taps blowing in the background]..."
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Well, bullshit!!
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The state of California is in a depression. They are looking for revenue streams. Here's one with an ongoing BILLIONS of dollars to be netted, known money, now untouchable, waiting to be plucked. But there are at least a dozen other states where the DEA and Ag Department says pot is the number one crop.
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Hawaii, Kentucky, Mississippi, Florida and right here North Carolina are on the list. None of them has a pot to piss in right now. They're watching CA and the DEA like a hawk. Revenue is revenue. And billions are hard to pass up.

OK, I've set the table, served the shrimp cocktail, and here's the entree.
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There are a thousand other things that the federales NOW control, that the states SHOULD control, that can be minimally taxed to help the states get back on their feet. Ultimately, power can trickle back to the states.
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It's a thin line I admit, but one to hope for.
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Schteveo