Thursday, July 8, 2010

More Government Regulations.

Approximately 3800 years ago - circa 1790BC - the sixth king of Babylon, Hammurabi created a code of laws that have, naturally, been named for him (for those in Alabama, this code is known as the Code of Hammurabi).

The code of Hammurabi consisted of 282 laws which were carved into large stone monuments, called stele, which would then be placed in a public place for all to see. One example that exits today is a 7 foot tall stele reportedly in the shape of an index finger. Considering that this finger stele is the handiwork of a "government", I suspect that it is actually a middle finger.

One would think that after nearly 4000 years of law making, government bureaucrats would have addressed every issue there is; you'd think that they would eventually run out of things to regulate. You'd be wrong, however.

As I pointed out yesterday [San Francisco Bans Soft Drinks] a clever politician can always fine something regulate. In that post, I related how San Francisco's mayor Gavin Newsom has issued a directive banning sugary soft drinks in vending machines located on city property. After writing yesterday's post, I learned from this article that the San Francisco Department of Public Health has issued a set of regulations for THC laced brownies, ice cream and milkshakes (and more) made in San Francisco's medical marijuana dispensaries.

These regulations deal with issues such as proper packaging, hand washing as well as each item have a warning that the item is a medication and not a food. Considering Mayor Newsom's war on obesity, I'm surprised that the regulations do not cover the amount of sugar in each marijuana brownie.

Years ago,when I was in my teens, I first heard the claim that "the reason why marijuana is illegal, is because they haven't figured out a way to tax it". As I pointed out in a post from two years ago, the notion that governments can't figure out how to tax something can best be described as dunderheaded. As if to prove my point, the Berkeley CA. city council has been discussing how to tax both medical and recreational cannabis.







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