The Devil Comes to America

Chapter 195: An offer I can't refuse
Many people in the room were curious about why Xiong En took out the certificate.

Xiong En put the certificate on the table and said, "Everyone, in our country, 21 states plus Washington, D.C., allow the legal cultivation of recreational marijuana, and 37 states allow the legal cultivation of medical marijuana. You should all know these numbers."

"Of course we know Xiong En, so what do you want to say?"

"But every state actually has restrictions on planting, right?" Xiong En looked at them and said with a smile, "Quantity restrictions, production restrictions, etc., for the so-called social harm."

"California is one of the first places to allow cultivation and open official injection sites, but how much money have our people made from this?"

Xiong En said, pulling out a large bag of stuff from under the table and throwing it directly onto the table: "Not much, right?"

Everyone looked at the bag of stuff on the table with an unpleasant look on their faces.

The bag contained the things they were discussing, and there was quite a lot of them.

Why did this lunatic just throw it up here? Even if it was distributed to everyone, shouldn't it be processed further?

"It's because of this." Xiong En pointed at the thing on the table. "This is not something grown by licensed people, but the product of illegal cultivation. You may not know how suitable the weather in California is for this thing to grow. A group of Mexicans and Asians came to California, and they either applied for a cheap hemp license or directly rented a villa and secretly grew this thing inside the house."

"Perhaps you don't know that LASD, in cooperation with the National Guard, destroyed 300 hemp farms in the Antelope Valley alone! They arrested nearly 1800 people, and that's because they didn't have enough people there, so a bunch of people ran away. They confiscated a full hemp plants and pound of various hemp products! Ladies and gentlemen, I want to ask, at the current price of $ per pound, how much is this?"

"A billion dollars! And this is just the freaking Antelope Valley! And who's making this money?"

"It's the fucking Mexicans, it's the Armenians, it's those Asians in the East!"

"These guys don't pay taxes, but they made a billion dollars easily from our land! And what did they pay us for? Some water and electricity? No, they stole a lot of it! This is just one Antelope Valley. How many Antelope Valleys are there in California?"

"If you still don't understand, let me tell you another statistic. Just a month ago, the LAPD and the county police conducted a cleanup operation. They went around Los Angeles and got another 15,000 marijuana plants! And 70 to 80 kilograms of concentrated products! This stuff is much more valuable than marijuana."

"How much money do you think we'd have to lose to those damn thieves if this happened all over California?"

The people around looked at the passionate Xiong En with some confusion.

Someone asked quietly, "Xiong En, what do you mean? Do you want us to support you in your drug eradication?"

Xiong En grinned and said, "No, no, no, I don't want to steal the DEA's job. I'm just telling everyone how profitable this thing is."

Someone said dissatisfiedly: "Xiong En, we understand this without you saying it, right?"

"No, you don't understand." Xiong En waved his hand, "These figures were all made up by these people secretly. They created so much wealth just under our noses without the police noticing. What if they are legal?" "I can tell you very clearly." Xiong En swept his eyes over the people in the room, "I don't care how much everyone here opposes my proposal for free injections, but I hope you understand that I'm not an idiot, and I don't want to support those drug addicts."

Someone said dissatisfiedly: "But that's what you do, Xiong En, isn't it?"

"That's because I need a reason!" Xiong En said nonchalantly, "Only if we give those drug addicts free stuff, the state government will need a large sum of money to buy these hemp plants, right?"

"This is why we are not happy with your proposal." Someone snorted, "Our government shouldn't pay for this. Taxpayers certainly don't want this money to be spent on this."

"Come on." Xiong En curled his lips in disdain: "That's because you all know that this money has nothing to do with you. Don't worry, I took out this bag of things just to tell you that there is no surveillance in this room."

"So I want to ask you, if California is offering free injections to drug addicts, shouldn't we open up our planting conditions? Because only in this way can we buy what we need from farmers in our state at a lower cost. This protects the interests of taxpayers."

The group of people looked at each other, and seemed to see something in their eyes.

Xiong En continued, "Now more and more states have opened up planting and injection. It's like an arms race. Every state knows how profitable this thing is, but due to various pressures, they dare not let go and do it, or they have no reason to do it. But we have this reason."

"Because we have to take on more social responsibilities, we have to be responsible for every American citizen, even if he is a drug addict, we have to provide them with marijuana for free."

“In that case, it’s only natural that California would relax its cultivation rules, right?”

"But this will cost money, won't it?" someone said.

Someone else immediately responded: "Don't beat around the bush, Xiong En, tell us now, what is the purpose of allowing California to have a more relaxed policy to grow this thing other than saving the government money?"

Xiong En raised the planting certificate in his hand again and said faintly, "It's okay to allow the expansion of planting? But who is qualified to plant? After all, we also need to consider the social harm of this kind of thing. So think about it, who is qualified to plant it?"

"Those with certificates." Xiong En smiled happily. "Under such strict restrictions in California, those who are willing to apply for certificates and accept inspections are the ones who are willing to abide by California laws. Aren't they the most qualified to grow crops?"

The eyes of the people in the room immediately fell on Xiong En.

Xiong En was very satisfied with the result. He laughed and said, "You can definitely apply for new certificates, but we have the final say on how to review the qualifications. It's just like banks. Banks in the United States have always been able to apply to be established, right? But how many new banks have appeared in the past half century?"

"I don't care about the contraband given to drug addicts. What I care about is that we have the final say on who can get a license in California, and that no one can get this license in the future! Or monopolizing the legal cultivation industry in this state."

"If I were you," Xiong En said with a smile, "after this banquet, I would definitely spend money to get a license right away, right?"

(End of this chapter)