The future of business is always going to be innovation. In order to have something successful running, a person is going to have to think outside the box. We live in such a fast and changing time, a society that has information at its finger tips, that we forget how many basic and simply things can change the quality of life and make people some serious money. One of the slogans we often hear from politicians is how they want to reduce the crime rate in their 
country and/or community. Maybe they can take a lesson from countries such as Holland and Canada; even places in the United States like Oakland, Denver, and looks like now Portland. Portland, Oregon might just be the next major city in the United States to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana (see to the right). This new ballot being called “Measure 8” would allow possession of less than one ounce of marijuana for people that are over the age of 21 (at the current moment, possession of less than once ounce is considered a misdemeanor violation). This new legalization of marijuana in Portland, Oregon can tend to a market that already exists. The city can cater to the market and make itself a good amount of money that can be used to pay for things ordinarily would through taxes. This way the city, and hopefully later the state will encourage people to spend more money and in return do a nice helping to the economy.
This has proven to be successful in Holland with its coffee shops in Amsterdam that sell marijuana and hashish with a cup of joe. Marijuana is not illegal in Holland and yet their crime rate tends to be low when it comes to drugs. At the same time, legalized marijuana created a closer community among its people and a sense of freedom to expand their mind. This summer among other places in Europe I happen to be in Amsterdam and talked to a few lawmakers and they were very proud of their laws. Not only did it create business they said but also decriminalized a lot of innocent people that would otherwise get time for smoking something better than a cigarette if a person were to do a cost-benefit analysis.
In cities like Oakland, having medicinal marijuana is a great thing to help people and eliminates having to deal with a shady drug dealer. People end up getting arrested for medicating the natural way
(see picture to the right); a police officer in Oakland said, "Working the streets, I legitimately witnessed sick people self-medicating with marijuana and drug dealers taking advantage of the." Having to register with the DMV, the city automatically makes money on a license fee and gathers a data base of marijuana smokers in the area. In order to be able to get a Cannabis Smokers’ Card, a person needs to be over the age of 21 and have a written prescription from a doctor. Some of my friends have Cannabis Smokers’ Card for mood swings or ADD, and they always tell me how much easier it makes their lives dealing with an actual business .
Opponents of legalization of marijuana say that it is a bad idea to legalize marijuana because of the message that it would be sending children and health issues, "There's no F.D.A.-approved product, to my knowledge, that's delivered in a smoked form," says Mr. Gust, of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. But what kind of message is being sends to children when their parents come home from work and get drunk to forget about their busy day? There is no way that a city or state will make the mistake of making alcohol illegal again because of all the money they would lose out on from the money they make from taxes and the C.R.V charge. Or how about the message a kid get when his parents or parent that is very loving, caring, and supportive gets arrested for such a petty crime. The police and DEA in Oregon have been bringing scrutiny to the program. The federal agency has been subpoenaing names and personal information of the program members and the police has been conducting grow raids all over the state. Hopefully Portland will jump on to the bandwagon and legalize marijuana.
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