Could marijuana save California?

cheryl

cheryl

I started this.
Staff member
[pic=left]http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/Gallery_Images/2010/5/6/1273159533731/Jim-Hill-in-his-greenhous-006.jpg[/pic] Could marijuana save California? - The Guardian

In the 60s hippies fled to the backwoods of northern California to grow pot. There they have been joined by growers of 'medical marijuana' – available with a doctor's recommendation – as well as by Mexican drug cartels. With cannabis now its largest cash crop, the state will soon vote on whether to legalise it fully – and even Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is thinking the enormous tax revenues might just solve his budget deficit…
 
klein

klein

Für Meno :)
You live there Cheryl. Whats your stake on it ?
Personally, I think they should have legalized prositition like in Europe, first.
Think of all the new jobs, and tax payers. Besides much safer.

I guess the legalization of pot is comming sooner or later. Might as well do it now, if it helps.
Less people in Jail, less police work, and more taxes. Sounds like a plan.
 
wkmac

wkmac

Well-Known Member
I'm for legalization of marijuana and I don't believe this plant presents a great revenue stream for any gov't on 2 grounds. On the first, if marijuana is made legal, how many people will fore go alcohol for marijuana thus cannibalizing the alcohol tax revenue stream? OK, where's the extra gain for the state in that? And you also assume a great influx of people who want to get high who aren't already doing so with alcohol. In the 70's I smoked literally kilos of reefer as I also sold it on the drug black market and it's assumed a "boomer" like me would run headlong for the first legal joint. I rarely drink alcohol as I'm just not a fan of it at all and I can't honestly say (all joking aside) that I will run out and smoke that joint either. I'm pretty happy with life in an "unaltered state" but I do agree if made legal, there will be an initial boom until things settle out and I do think the real loser would be alcohol and only shifting of current tax revenues from alcohol over to marijuana.

The 2nd point that although you can make your own alcohol, a tradition still very alive in my neck of the woods, marijuana is easily homegrown and thus avoid the taxman altogether. In fact, if gov't created a system for legal marijuana as a tax mechanism for revenue, they would also have to create an enforcement arm to deter homegrown as this would cut into govt's tax monopoly model. The new "drug war" would be more tax focused and it's costs would offset any added benefit IMO. Advocates for legalization are IMO grasping at disingenuous straws proposing this tax model as it is easily circumvented. Back in the day marijuana was illegal so skirting the law was necessary but doable. Make it legal on the homefront and without the plants themselves in your possession, how do you determine the weed you have is not gov't weed?

If you are going to legalize it, do so in that anyone can grow their own just like one can grow your own tomatoes. Otherwise, the whole thing IMO will end in failure and the end result will not be what many on the legalization front are promising.

jmo
 
bbsam

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
Nah, Wk. People would still drink as much. Different high, different party. Now if you were talking about heroine, then you might infringe upon alcohol, not pot though.
 
soberups

soberups

Pees in the brown Koolaid
In my state (Oregon), marijuana was decriminalized back in 1972. Possession of less than one ounce is merely an "infraction" with a $500 fine and nothing appearing on your criminal record. It is comparable to jaywalking or having an unlicensed dog. California and Washington have similar laws. As a practical matter, anybody who wants to buy pot can already get it. I have been clean and sober for 13 years, but right now if I wanted to buy a gram of dope it would take me less than 10 minutes to find some.

It is an appalling waste of taxpayers money to continue enforcing an unenforceable law. We are talking about a weed. You stick a seed in the ground and it grows. There is no rational basis for allowing alcohol while forbidding marijuana. Marijuana should be legalized, taxed, and sold in liquor stores. It is already legal here to grow it and use it for medical purposes, we may as well just legalize it entirely.
 
Catatonic

Catatonic

Nine Lives
soberups said:
It is an appalling waste of taxpayers money to continue enforcing an unenforceable law. We are talking about a weed. You stick a seed in the ground and it grows. There is no rational basis for allowing alcohol while forbidding marijuana. Marijuana should be legalized, taxed, and sold in liquor stores. It is already legal here to grow it and use it for medical purposes, we may as well just legalize it entirely.
Click to expand...

Hey! We agree on something! Cool!
 
ups1990

ups1990

Well-Known Member
How can marijuana possibly save the state? The problem is that too many people are smoking way too much marijuana. The hippies in sacramento are starting to sound wacky and have spent all of california's money.
 
wkmac

wkmac

Well-Known Member
Associated Press: U.S. Drug War has met None of It's Goals

Maybe Washington DC should treat jobs like drugs and make them illegal to solve the unemployment problem!
:wink2:
 
bbsam

bbsam

Moderator
Staff member
wkmac said:
Associated Press: U.S. Drug War has met None of It's Goals

Maybe Washington DC should treat jobs like drugs and make them illegal to solve the unemployment problem!
:wink2:
Click to expand...
Doesn't work like that. They once tried to make not having a balanced budget illegal. Nice thought, politically inexpedient.:wink2:
 
Top