Watch: What a Legal Pot Economy Would Look Like

Editor's Note: Sometimes a cartoon can be worth a thousand words. ... or even more than 100,000. Haik Hoisington's 'Flower' video has hit a nerve and has gone viral on the internet. The Flower was released by the online news service AlterNet on July 29 – and in just five days has been viewed more than 175,000 times.

This fall Californians will go the polls with a chance to make history. They will be able to cast a vote to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol or cigarettes. California's Proposition 19 is one of many similar initiatives cropping up on state ballots across the country.

Whether it's calls for decriminalization or medical marijuana the end of cannabis prohibition has never seemed closer. In this short animated parable, "The Flower," award winning artist Haik Hoisington contrasts a legal marijuana economy with an illegal one, to show how everyone stands to benefit from ending the war on weed.

"The Flower" contrasts a utopian society that freely farms and consumes a pleasure giving flower with a society where the same flower is illegal and its consumption is prohibited. The animation is a meditation on the social and economic costs of marijuana prohibition.