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"A kind of Marfa-meets-ganja art retreat north of San Francisco and a new economic engine for art philanthropy."

What?!

I love the way the paragraph I took that quote from has one hot link  ? you know those links the NYT throws in that take you to other NYT articles? ? and the link is on the word "marijuana." I know and you know what marijuana is, but what about Marfa? Eh. You either get the joke or you get that it is a joke... and move on.

Move on to the odd news about what would otherwise not be news ? that you can make a lot of money growing and selling marijuana. But look! There's art in there. And pretty people. And it's medical marijuana...

At a going wholesale rate of $200 or more an ounce in the Bay Area for high-quality medical marijuana, it?s a lot simpler than raising money the traditional way, the project?s organizers point out. And ? except for the nagging fact that selling marijuana remains a crime under federal law ? it even feels more honest to the people behind Life Is Art. They see it as a way of supporting the cause with physical labor and the fruits of the land instead of the wheedling of donors, an especially appealing prospect in an economy where raising money has become more difficult than ever.

The nagging fact that selling marijuana remains a crime under federal law... which is so unenforced that pretty people pose in the New York Times with their pitchforks in American Gothic japery in the company of their big, sunlit marijuana plant. Tell me, how will it ever be possible to enforce those laws again? And if they are not going to be enforced, how can we accept the continual degradation of respect for the idea that it means something for an activity to be a crime?

Full post as published by Althouse on October 12, 2010 (boomark / email).