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I agree.. I can buy 4 cases of Heineken for the price of an once at $120, that's 96 glass bottles of quality beer for one once of bush... quality weed should sell for like 60 to 75 and once.. get it down to that price and it will wipe out the cartels ever dealing with weed again...
The problem is that it cost about $50 an ounce to grow in the state of Colorado where weed does not naturally thrive (climate is to dry and it is too cold half the year).
Also that 4 cases of Heineken is not going to last you as long as an ounce of weed, this is not the old ditch weed that people smoked 20 years ago. Even people I know that smoke 2 or 3 times a day can get high for hours on a half of a bowl. An ounce will usually last even a heavy smoker about a month, I know heavy drinkers that 4 cases of Heineken will not even last 2 weeks.
No it is not, for the quality weed that will actually sale the costs of the nutrients and such drive the costs much higher than $3 for 2 lbs, I dabble in venture capital in the state of Colorado, I have seen the numbers from various different grow operations, it is on average $50-60 an ounce once you calculate the costs of security, the costs of the nutrients, the lights, the temperature control, and the people to harvest it. Not to mention the costs to actually get and keep a location, the laws are so specific about the locations available to grow in the places you can grow get a huge premium in the neighborhood of 3-4 times average rent per square foot compared to other buildings in an area.
Now that cost may be half in Mexico, or even a third, but there is no way they are getting quality stuff for $1.50 a lb.
As others have said there were reasons for the state to overestimate the sales tax revenue that would come from the retail sales of pot, under the tabor amendment they cannot keep the money if it would have went higher than their projections.
The fact is most smokers I know have kept their medical cards, not only do they avoid the retail taxes of 25% but most dispensaries charge less for medical pot than they do for the exact same weed on the retail side. Meaning that a large portion of that additional tax revenue is coming from pot tourism which is saying that the state is generating millions more in tourism than they were prior to the laws being changed.
Another little known fact is that the income taxes produced are artificially high as well. You see since Marijuana is still an illegal drug on the federal level these dispensaries cannot deduct any of the costs of sales. So no deductions for advertising, for their store fronts, the employees at the dispensaries, and many other things that the average business owner could deduct. Meaning that the $400 million or so still be projected as revenue for these places will all be paying tax on that amounting to close to an effective tax rate of 30-40% combined to the state and federal governments plus the additional income tax paid by all the employees of these dispensaries. Add to it the $10,000-20,000 in licensing fees, and in the end basically 65% of all the money generated from the sale of retail pot is going to one form of government or another through sales tax, licensing, and income tax.
Making the real number on the $200 ounce of weed once your sales tax is added in making it $230 (the grower tax is actually added to the costs for the dispensary usually) split out to $120 to the government, $50 to grow it and get it into the store, and $60 to pay for advertising, employees, keeping the lights on, paying the rent, and hopefully making a profit. the little known secret is that many of these dispensaries have other outlets where they sale illegally out the backdoor in order to make a real profit. The ones who are 100% legal have to do a very large volume to make any real money for the owner.
The last thing I want to say is it is kind of funny to me how many liberal and main stream media types are reporting the lower revenue as a fact and trying to make it sound like the money has been stolen. They are usually the 1st ones to start screaming when a conservative has a stance that may or may not be connected to a supporter, yet they are making millions off of alcohol and big pharma, so now do whatever they can to make retail marijuana look like a huge failure in Colorado despite those of us in Colorado know that it has had little effect on our day to day lives but it has increased the tax revenue considerably in the state.
I am saying the pro-pot arguments, which were used to sell the legalization idea turned out to be bogus. It did not make the black market disappear, and it did not result in all the tax revenue they promised.
Finn, Finn, Finn...how would the black market disappear with only two states legalizing it? Your statement is, well, just silly. You seem to think that everything was supposed to change overnight and that projections were set in stone. There is no common sense to your words; if you do not already hold a political office perhaps you should run for one. I feel you are in the fishbowl which has made our America...no longer our America. I would imagine you support the patriot act and the loss of many American Freedoms it propelled based on a war which was based on a lie. Do you still pass out copies of Refer Madness too? Government and big corporations are what is killing America not cannabis. With the hole our government is in financially cannabis legalization may be the only thing that keeps us being totally owned by China...
Finn, Finn, Finn...how would the black market disappear with only two states legalizing it? Your statement is, well, just silly. You seem to think that everything was supposed to change overnight and that projections were set in stone. There is no common sense to your words; if you do not already hold a political office perhaps you should run for one. I feel you are in the fishbowl which has made our America...no longer our America. I would imagine you support the patriot act and the loss of many American Freedoms it propelled based on a war which was based on a lie. Do you still pass out copies of Refer Madness too? Government and big corporations are what is killing America not cannabis. With the hole our government is in financially cannabis legalization may be the only thing that keeps us being totally owned by China...
error...keeps us FROM being totally owned by China.
Finn, Finn, Finn...how would the black market disappear with only two states legalizing it? Your statement is, well, just silly. You seem to think that everything was supposed to change overnight and that projections were set in stone. There is no common sense to your words; if you do not already hold a political office perhaps you should run for one.
If there is no sense in the argument, it is because the argument itself was invented by the pro-pot people.
Does it surprise you that a stoner's argument makes no sense?
Quote:
With the hole our government is in financially cannabis legalization may be the only thing that keeps us being totally owned by China
Is that what your dealer told you? China holds about 8% of US debt. Not exactly "totally owned", is it? Even it the number was bigger (actually it was 11% not too long ago), it would have absolutely nothing to do with marijuana. That is a desperate argument at best.
Put the pipe down and sober up!
Last edited by Finn_Jarber; 11-01-2014 at 05:08 AM..
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smoke
