A former colleague of mine sent me an interesting piece from the New York Times on a non-profit arts effort, put together by the same Life Is Art Collective who helped design the newly-opened Eiffel Society club on St. Charles Avenue, that’s being supported by the growth and sale of marijuana.

I love this idea.

Anyone who’s involved in arts funding can testify that on a federal, state and local level, arts funding has just about dried up and is a fraction of what it used to be. IMHO, a damning indicator of how Americans value their arts (shameful and disheartening).

As usual, I’ll stick out my neck and say that New Orleans (and Louisiana, for that matter) need to wake up and smell the ganja smoke: a sincere effort to legalize marijuana is on a roll, and unless we jump on board in this state, we’re going to pass up another wide-open window of opportunity for producing some real revenue for this state.

Let’s face it: oil revenue is lagging. This country is in the throes of trying to divest itself from oil dependence. What the hell, Louisiana doesn’t get enough of that oil revenue anyway; the oil business has largely moved out of the state. Hanging our economic future (again) on deep-water oil drilling is another accident waiting to happen. The reinstatement of deep-water drilling is only postponing the inevitable for the state’s economy. High tech has possibilities, but not so hot if you compare our backwater educational system to other states.

Instead of depending on the same-old types of economic development tactics, why can’t our legislators latch on to something that’s got a future? I tend to think that there are a lot of supporters for this idea in New Orleans (remember, I said that we need to legalize marijuana–and prostitution!– in New Orleans, in which case we would never have to worry about people wanting to visit the city every again. Someone had enough moxie to make this suggestion!).

But in the rest of Bible Belt Louisiana—well, I have my doubts, although I can’t quite understand why all these anti-marijuana folk think it’s okay for alcohol to be consumed, while marijuana is illegal. If anything is a so-called “gateway drug”—it’s alcohol.

This state is in dire straits; this city is in even worse economic condition.

Are we pursuing new ideas in technology, like possibly wind farms off our coast? Or innovative ideas that will produce a totally new industry, such as marijuana farming, manufacture and medical availability? Times are changing, people! We even have a mainstream show on a cable channel about a marijuana dealer!

What is the major difference between a pharmaceutical manufacturer and a marijuana agricultural complex, other than the fact that marijuana is legally prohibited? Think about what happened to this country when alcohol was prohibited. The same thing is occurring with the prohibition of certain drugs. If it’s not regulated by government, it’s going to be regulated by thugs by violence. It’s filling up jails for no reason. It’s hurting kids and families who don’t need a loved one in jail for smoking a little weed. Or even selling it.

If I were in politics and/or economic development, I’d certainly give some thought to this. Of course, introducing an idea like this into the Louisiana legislature would probably get the bill proponent either laughed out of chambers or crucified politically. And that’s a real pity and a shame.

Who’s got the guts to make this happen in Louisiana? The arts community? Or the politicians who are supposed to care about our economy and their constituency’s well-being?