[TKDietz]

One other quick point and I’ll stop with the multiple posts. If it is so easy to grow quality marijuana, why do these pot clubs in places like California and “coffee shops” in Holland do such big business selling really expensive bud? People with medical marijuana cards could grow their own, and law enforcement doesn’t care about a few plants in Holland. Why would so many people pay $20 a gram or whatever when they could grow their own for free? Is it because it is a pain in the butt to grow your own, or is it because they like having the variety offered at the shops, or is it because these people don’t need as much pot as they would get from growing their own so it isn’t worth the trouble, or is it some combination of all these factors?

[SJSAMPLE]

I agree that people in a legal market have more choices.

People have a legal outlet that’s UNTAXED, so they don’t have to grow it by themselves.

Look at the profit margins on tobacco vs the goobermint’s take.

If marijuana were taxed like alcohol and tobacco, people would grow at home, for friends, and for sale on an underground market.

It’s a pain to grow marijuana like it’s a pain to grow tomatoes.
1. People who grow tomatoes do it for recreation, because you get a far cheaper product (and usually a better product) at the store. Same with marijuana if it were legal.
2. But, it’s illegal and UNTAXED. People can’t get it legally and even if they could, it would be taxed so much that they’d still have off-market choices.

Even if marijuana were difficult to grow and the quality was poorer, it would have to be some hellacious ganja for someobody to pay 400% markups because our goobermint wants its cut.

Either way, I stand by my statements that marijuana is illegal because there are easier alternatives to the goobermint’s confiscatory tax rates.