dimocrat logic.....just legalize everything and crime goes away!
It certainly cut down on the truckers available on a constant basis...
On any given day 40% cannot pass a drug test.
In Colorado, you pay a hefty state tax, a hefty county tax and a hefty city tax on each legal purchase. As most here are smart enough to know, taxes & prohibition feeds the black market. You can take $100 to the local legal dispo and get a quarter ounce and a couple joints, or an ounce from the black market dealer. Basic economics, although I do find it fascinating when “Conservatives” are all about that big government, as long as its THEIR big government censoring/stopping/prohibiting the things they don’t like.
Legal weed is rather expensive. California, for example, places a 15% tax on marijuana sales. That’s over and above California’s 7.25% state sales tax.
Illegal weed might not be of the same quality. But it is tax-free.
It has turned into a living nightmare in the part of Washington State we live in. Every time we get out in our car someone is smoking pot in vehicles ahead of us. Our car is filled with the skunk like odor. It is the same at both of our houses which are both in good neighborhoods.
Homelessness has skyrocketed since legalization. A larger and large percentage of people are making the decision to just smoke pot and do nothing else. Not to mention skyrocketing mental illness which billions of dollars in marijuana obviously has something to do with.
We now have over $2 Billion of legal marijuana being sold here along with what is now thought to be an even larger number of illegal sales. This far out paces both alcohol and tobacco combined. It is insane.
Get rid of the federal prohibition and ease up on the state taxes.
Pretty slick maneuver to blame the presence of foreign criminal drug cartels on Americans who want to grow some weed.
The whole illegal operation is probably run by Dems.
That’s because we’re legalizing it STUPID. Putting enough taxes and licensing on it to make sure the white market weed is still more expensive than the black market. Legalize it smart, like booze is, black market can’t compete.
There's no more Probable Cause for law enforcement when stopping drivers or pedestrian.
The high taxes on legal marijuana serve to discourage competition to the local crime bosses moving illegal weed while paying off the politicians.
...just like cigarette taxes were put in place to facilitate the local crime bosses running of unstamped cigarettes.
We all learned that Alcohol prohibition, passed by an amendment to the Constitution in 1920, caused organized crime to skyrocket.
I also learned that with the amendment to rescind prohibition in 1933, organized crime faded away.
My question is, why not the same for marijuana?
The idiots on FreeRepublic and elsewhere for legalization were useful stooges for the cartels and the left. They both have what they want. Increased distribution of product and control of politicians by the cartel and stoned compliant masses for the left.
It certainly cut down on the number of people capable of holding down a job.
Now we have cities that have de facto legalized narcotics, which has cut down the number of people living past 30 years old.
“Weed isn’t addictive, I smoke it every day!”
Illegal weed will always cost less. It’s not taxed.
I recently became the owner of an extraction facility. It kind of fell into my lap. I’m not operational yet and may never be, but I am trying. The facility was originally going to make recreation drugs but I am hoping only to make medicinal products. And for the 7 months I have played with, and witnessed, all of players in this game from politicians, police, fire, inspectors, CEOs of public companies, rival companies, past partners, grow owners, wishful thinkers, etc, and at least in California, the cartel. The experience has been an eye opener.
https://youtu.be/d7P3EFrOe6I
Forget what city it was when we were vacationing in Colorado, over the weekend and legal dispensaries opened the next Monday. Couldn’t believe how many young, homeless looking people were waiting for the stores to open. Everywhere we went in the town people were begging. It sure wasn’t drawing the best and the brightest into town.