Our new law making recreational pot use legal just passed. On the plus side our legal system dumped 175 cases against small time users there by freeing up our courts for more serious matters. But there is still the issue to be dealt with about the opening of state run pot stores and the federal laws that prevent that from happening. Who's going to want to work in a place where any day a DEA agent can swoop down and cart you off to a federal pen?
And there is still the issue of driving under the influence and legal limits. With no breath test or other standard to determine the extent of impairment a walk past the doughnut shop window might be in order. If the suspect desires the entire lower shelf dipped in butter with a side dish of Fruit Loops then it's off to jail.
There is also the issue of home grown cannabis something the state never thought about. Those millions of tax dollars might go up in smoke when people figure out they can easily grow their own. I'm hearing the proposed selling price at the state level would be $16 per gram which is three times what the street price is at the moment. And much like our liquor deregulation that just passed it could create a giant black market for the stuff. Sin taxes are all well and good until they become overbearing. The market for illegal smokes (cigarettes) is booming here with smugglers from as far away as Vietnam.
And what's next? Prostitution? That would be a great way to get the girls off the street out of the rain and under covers (if you get the drift) :-). But I'm amazed there's still a profession left with all the free adult dating sights out there. So what's left for the big Tonys and the other mob bosses? Extortion kidnapping and blackmail just aren't what they used to be. But I forgot they're already doing their damage on Wall Street and nobody seems to care. Plus the rewards are far greater than some penny anti local scam.
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11 comments:
There's much to be worked out on the whole pot thing, I wouldn't be interested in growing it myself, getting good buds is a science best left to others.
I think many would just prefer to buying it over growing their own. I think they should let the tobacco growers grow it, that area is the right climate for it without grow lights and all that.
Anyway, I've never figured out why the christians forced their daughters out on the streets.
Crum put up an interesting post.
Pot should be removed from the books completely. As you point out, they have been growing their own for ever anyhow. Taxing it to death makes for more illegal activity so what have you gained?
I don't do pot, just a hit once in a while when with those that do it, it makes them feel better about you when you do that, like you're one of them or something.
But I find the subject interesting.
I voted NO on the reefer madness.
It's a totally half assed measure that only deals with it as a COMMERCIAL venture with no provision, AFAIK, to address "home" growers.
Roughly speaking, growers must sell to wholesalers who must sell to "processers" who must sell to retailers, it being outragously taxed at every stage.
Should have held out for a better deal.
A flawed solution is at least a place to start. $16/ gram? It better be some kick ass ganja or what Blog Fodder says will happen. And contrary to what BBC says about growing it, the dumbest man I know locally manages to support his family by growing it. And from my own experience over 25 years ago, it ain't rocket science. Growing corn is more difficult.
I would just as soon the authorities do what they have been prone to do recently and that is just to ignore it. A pot case of the dealing kind can cost as much as $100,000 to prosecute in Maine. And then they have to house the poor bastard and take away bed space from more more deserving losers.
It's a totally half assed measure that only deals with it as a COMMERCIAL venture with no provision, AFAIK, to address "home" growers.
Bootlegging will always be alive and well if you don't want to buy the taxed weed.
Any state legislators with dollar signs in their eyes because of this had better think again. I believe one reason pot was demonized the way it was in the 1930's is because tobacco and alcohol interests wanted it demonized. They saw it as competition that would always be cheaper than their products. Especially so since the government can't very well tax homegrown pot. For its part, government didn't like the idea of an intoxicant it couldn't tax and regulate.
All that said, if the price is at all reasonable, a good many people will prefer to buy the stuff for the sake of convenience. Producers and the state just have to resist the temptation to get too greedy.
The real loses will be drug gangs, here, in Mexico and other countries, smugglers and the incarceration industry.
So, anybody holding?
Sure a dumb man can grow it, but he got the science of it from somewhere.
I suspect the Feds will come down hard if the state gets into the business of growing and selling. There's too much money to be made on enforcement. My thought has always been that if pot were legal the gangs and cartels will shift to harder drugs to promote. Then where will we be?
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