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Just make it legal in all states and all this BS will be done with!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by pknopp
Not at $250 an ounce. Not at $200 an ounce. Not at $150 an ounce. At some point it will affect the illegal market but we are far from that.
It is a legitimate argument that ridding the market of the illegal trade is valid but we are not doing that.
Wasn't that my point? If it's legal on the federal level we would see an instant windfall. Drug addiction would plummet, and revenues would skyrocket!
Empty 70% of the prisons and expunge the records for minor possession charges. WATCH THE GDP SKYROCKET!
WE are imprisoning and aborting our wealth!
The war on drugs is like committing fiscal suicide!!!
Just make it legal and everything good will follow. Gangs will lose 70% of their finance, Mexican cartels will be wiped out, and the tax income will be outstanding! Corporate (think about that) PRISONS WILL GO BROKE!!!Tax stamp all drugs and OD's will dramatically decrease. Spend the windfall on welfare, drug rehab, and prevention programs.
THE ENTIRE WAR ON CITIZENS IS RIDICULOUS!
AHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, if common sense prevailed, life would be goooooooooooood!
The $250 was being quoted from a legal market. If it is legal everywhere do I think the prices will come down? Yes I do but that still does not justify $250 in a legal market.
Wasn't that my point? If it's legal on the federal level we would see an instant windfall. Drug addiction would plummet, and revenues would skyrocket!
I have no idea how addiction would plummet but revenues are not going to skyrocket as long as the black market can undercut the legal market. If the authorities are still spending an ungodly amount of money to stop and prosecute this market we really haven't accomplished what we should.
“I don’t know who is buying for recreational use at dispensaries unless it’s white, middle-class people and out-of-towners,” said Rudy Reddog Balles, a longtime community activist and mediator. “Everyone I know still has the guy on the street that they hook up with.”
Now pot is legalised and who benefits? Rich people with their money to invest and their clean criminal records. And here we are again: on the outskirts of opportunity. A legion of entrepreneurs with big plans and rewired basements chafes with every monthly state tax revenue report.
In this light, taxation is seen as a blunt instrument of exclusion, driving precisely the groups most prosecuted in the war on drug further into the arms of the black market. In one Denver dispensary, a $30 purchase of one-eighth of the Trinity strain of cannabis includes $7.38 in state and local taxes – a near 33% rate. As Larisa Bolivar, one of the city’s most well-known proponents of decriminalising marijuana, puts it: that $7 buys someone lunch.
“It’s simple,” she says. “A high tax rate drives black market growth. It’s an incentive for risky behaviour.”
The same scenario is playing out here in Washington state. The MJ legalization proposal was larded up with taxes in order to get the approval of the powers that be. According to this the effective tax rate is 44 percent. Legal Pot Estimate Cut as 44% Washington Tax Curbs Demand - Businessweek
So you're going to have middle-aged, middle/upper class white people buying the legal bud, and all others thrown back into the black market. And my prediction is that with black market sales now cutting into state revenues, the storm troopers of the state will get free rein to crack down on black market purveyors. Irony of ironies, legalization will not end the war on drugs but intensify it.
The same scenario is playing out here in Washington state. The MJ legalization proposal was larded up with taxes in order to get the approval of the powers that be. According to this the effective tax rate is 44 percent. Legal Pot Estimate Cut as 44% Washington Tax Curbs Demand - Businessweek
So you're going to have middle-aged, middle/upper class white people buying the legal bud, and all others thrown back into the black market. And my prediction is that with black market sales now cutting into state revenues, the storm troopers of the state will get free rein to crack down on black market purveyors. Irony of ironies, legalization will not end the war on drugs but intensify it.
The same thing happen when the USDA took over organic and with their high priced regulations put the small seller out of business and unable to use the "organic" label.
Now the big boys get to smack "organic" on their food and sell it for twice as much to the high spending yuppie types.
Farmer Markets are now using "natural" or "no chemicals" or other such means because they cannot afford that all exclusive "organic" label anymore.
When the government takes it over it's NEVER to benefit the little man.
You're forgetting one thing. Pot is legal. This thread is about the market here in Colorado.
Colorado falls under federal jurisdiction. There is nothing to stop a Republican from gaining the white house or Obama deciding to enforce the marijuana laws.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pknopp
The discussion concerns legal pot. Yes, the illegal black market can justify the high costs. Legal pot should be nowhere near those numbers.
There is no such thing as legal pot. The possession, cultivation and/or sale is a federal penalty that comes with a 5 year to life jail stint.
Colorado falls under federal jurisdiction. There is nothing to stop a Republican from gaining the white house or Obama deciding to enforce the marijuana laws.
There is no such thing as legal pot. The possession, cultivation and/or sale is a federal penalty that comes with a 5 year to life jail stint.
Party doesn't matter. Ca$h stream's been proven. You honestly think anyone's gonna look at the revenue numbers and not want a piece of it?
I'm not too concerned about anything being repealed. Check the trends.
If anything, we're headed completely opposite of your Chicken Little scenarios.
Party doesn't matter. Ca$h stream's been proven. You honestly think anyone's gonna look at the revenue numbers and not want a piece of it?
I'm not too concerned about anything being repealed. Check the trends.
If anything, we're headed completely opposite of your Chicken Little scenarios.
What chicken little scenario? The fact is that MJ growers and dispensaries can be prosecuted at anytime and is currently illegal under federal law. The only reason MJ isn't prosecuted everywhere is because of Obama, but that can easily change.
its being openly grown without the added costs of those sneaking it in from other countries.
What's your point? You said MJ is legal - it is not.
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