When I was at Auburn, my apartment was in the transition area between college students/campus life and the 'hood. In February, it could be 25 degrees outside, and at like 11 PM at night, I'd hear the calliope noise of the ice cream truck driving around. I am not making this up. One of my buddies bought from the dude one time.
Wait, you seriously think that there aren't cops who do drugs anyway? Or cops who drink and drive, or break other laws?
I smoke on the weekend. It's not something I need to do, but I enjoy doing it once a week or less because the prescription medication I am on for anxiety doesn't always work. I smoke to help the meds along I guess. I know there are some people who can't handle weed. It makes them paranoid and they just don't have a good time. It's for this reason that I don't preach about the medicinal qualities of pot. It's something that works for me, but I know it's not everyone's bag.
It is a well-known fact that most cops kidnap and murder the children of small-time drug offenders. They use the blood to bake ritual unleavened cop doughnuts to eat during bizarre rituals honoring their pagan cop gods.
Please don't make this a fuck tha police thread kids. I've seen cops drinking and driving and smoking dope with my own eyes. Nobody's perfect, but they do also arrest pimps and podophiles, so...props. So what's the deal with the passing of these bills? Is it immedietly following the election and as of now, or is their a grace period before it kicks in?
I'm all for legalization, but I don't expect private companies to change their stances on use in or outside of work. Of course, you'll always have the bosses who couldn't care less what you're doing on you're time, but I wouldn't want to injure myself at work with weed in my system. What interests me is how the federal government is going to react to yet another state blatantly defying a(n) (archaic and pointless, as well as arguably racist in origin) federal law. I'd expect to see them go for the highway funding threat, but I'm betting Colorado can more than cover that if they tax this stuff properly.
Theyre going to have define how it will be regulated and taxed, and then there will be the "response" by the federal government (DEA) and the real debate will begin--federal authority vs. states' rights. Buckle up.
I thought that one of the main reasons legalization would take my entire lifetime to happen was the huge amount of cases clogging the legal system for violating that prohibition alone. If it's legalized, does that mean those people have to stay in jail? Charges still apply? Why? What's the fucking logic in that? Also, the thousands of jobs related to enforcing this utter cunt of a prohibition will probably evaporate. The US can't really justify the ludicrous police presence it has when this "villainous herb" is no longer considered a threat (nothing against cops, but the guns, equipment and training they use is not in keeping with their actual job. The "us vs. them" mentality has turned the whole legal system into a shitshow crusade). This administration *might* be willing to back down on this, because there's no hope for reelection, but why would they? What's the upside? Make a bunch of stoners, a significant amount of whom can't vote due to violation of federal law, happy? It would imply a huge re-focus of the entire legal system, with no real benefit: who is winning votes on this issue? What politician will get themselves reelected by saying "These billions of dollars, decades of effort and millions of lives impacted on this issue were all for nothing. Oopsie."?
Maybe at least one of them can grow a sack and say this simple fact: "My country spends $80 billion and change a year putting Marijuana offenders in jail, and that will skyrocket every year." It really sucks that you can't change what's been done already. Unfortunetly people in the past got screwed, but in the end I believe that changing things for the better is a lot better than keeping them the shitty way that they currently are. Because of the drug war, not only is America the most imprisoning country on earth per capita but they now have more prisoners in jail that any other country PERIOD. America has more people in jail than China, a country with almost seven times their population and who will execute you for taking a hit on seventeen in blackjack.
Legalizing pot won't have any effect on the employment rate of those in enforcement. There are plenty of other targets in the WOD where their efforts can be focused and directed (and to which a marijuana tax can contribute). The Obama administration's drug policy from his first day in office was to place more emphasis on illicit use of Rx drugs both in terms of the black market and the "gray" market (doctors willing to dish out the scripts willy-nilly, combination "pain clinics/pharmacies, etc.). Let Big Tobacco become Big Weed. It would revitalize an industry and both save and create jobs at the same time, and the cartels that deal mainly in weed would never be able to compete in an open and legal market. You would also have a whole new edibles market for those who don't like to toke. Hashish Newtons sound awfully good. But politicians, especially those on the national stage, don't want to appear soft on drugs. The WOD has been a fiasco because the primary targets have been in the marijuana camp, and as Crown mentioned, that fiasco has spilled over into our prison system at considerable cost, financial and otherwise. But trying to make that case with the large conservative base of both individuals and organizations that exist currently is tantamount to political suicide.
Living where I do, I really don't give a shit if it's legalized or not. I can get high quality weed at what I consider a very reasonable price just about whenever I want. I buy from a very nice guy about my age who is very well connected and knows exactly what he is selling (ie it's not laced with anything), and since I have a Volcano vaporizer I can "smoke" all I want in my apartment because there is no actual smoke and hardly any odour. And as long as you don't smoke fat joints right outside of police stations, there is essentially no legal risk. In fact, I'm happy with the way things are right now. If they legalized it, it would be too easy for me to get. Having to coordinate with my dealer and make the half hour trip over there is just enough hassle that I'm able to summon the will power to take a few weeks off the stuff every now and then.
If they legalize and "tax the shit out of" marijuana as some advocates want, won't that just create a black market for tax-free weed?
I think they would compete just fine. They just might not make as much money, at first. Then they would put Big Weed out of business and the government would have to subsidize their "Big Idea". Maybe? What business, other than the business of building bigger government, has the government ever beaten private enterprise in?
FYI for the non-alcoholics/alcohol investors, InBev is the Belgian company that bought Anheuser-Busch.
This is different. Are you comparing a ........wait, what? What are you comparing to what? EDIT: The infrastructure for this black market is already in place and is much more efficient, ruthless and willing to win than our dialectic, hair splitting government, will ever be. EDIT 2: From a business perspective? The US government vs. Drug Cartels in the business of fucking up Americans would be a fucking joke. Just sayin'.
Really? Spoiler What business, other than the business of building bigger government, has the government ever beaten private enterprise in? EDIT: and this red dot just in..... What does this mean, downdirty?
You can't tax production of a plant, you can tax consumption at point of sale. You can tax INDUSTRIAL production of said plant, but we are years away from that happening. Think about it like this: all the amateur gardeners who decide to cultivate pot instead of orchids or corn. They will never produce enough to be noticed, and it would be pointless to try and tax them. The good news is, that once prohibition ends, there will be so many of them, the price will plummet. The days of pot being the top cash crop will likely end, because it's easy to grow, the knowledge of how to grow it is everywhere, and with no deterrent and a high starting price, many new entrants will see this as a lucrative venture which is the perfect storm for a supply glut. Also, just because it's decriminalized doesn't necessarily mean that there will be tremendous amounts of new demand. This is half the reason legalization is a good thing: take the money out of the product and the whole reason for the black market will disappear. Since the price is going down, who the fuck wants to deal with the black market? We only do that because we have to, not because it's preferred. Why wouldn't I want to go to an Amsterdam-style coffee shop and make a purchase over dealing with a sketchy, unreliable, often violent or dangerous black market dealer? That's where your taxes come in: at the point of sale, for personal consumption. Then, after a few years of a stable market, you can begin to think about assessing production taxes. Fuck, it wouldn't surprise me if the government didn't claim sole rights of distribution, so that the federal government became a dispensary for a few years.
I'm with downndirty on this one - that's why I asked about a tax-free black (or gray) market. Everyone's jizzing themselves over this huge tax windfall that will occur when they legalize and tax marijuana, but that also means that half the backyards in America are probably going to become micro-weederies. True, InBev and other large-scale alcohol producers aren't especially threatened by people brewing in their closet, but then again there's already a huge network of growers and distributors that aren't effectively taxable. And does it really require the same amount of attention, equipment, and skill to grow weed as it does to brew or distill alcohol? It's a weed for chrissakes (yes, I am sure if you are Serious About Weed, you can invest that much into it...but is that the norm?)