Here you just went through an explanation of how cigarette taxes were different in every state, then you turn right around and assume pot wouldn't be treated that way.
Your $1 pot with the $99 tax invites the black market. They won't sell it to just another state -- they'll sell it anywhere tax free. With that kind of profit, hell, I'm tempted.
People are willing to pay $5-10 per gram for legal pot in Amsterdam. Why would anyone sell it for anything less? Do you believe that the voters in this country want to legalize marijuana and make it available for $1 per ounce?
You're all caught up in this notion that since legal pot can be cheap it will be cheap. Government licensing, taxes, product liability insurance, etc. will drive up the price way beyond what it actually costs to manufacture.
That's true to a point, but the vast majority of people will always gravitate towards legal means, if they are available. For instance, I could get music for free by file swapping, but I risk have the RIAA up my @$$ with a crushing lawsuit. So I fork out a buck per song on iTunes instead.
When there's a way to avoid running afowl of the law, legal alternatives start becoming a lot more attractive, even if they're considerably more expensive. Even if it doesn't end the black market problem, it shrinks it to a shadow of its former self. That means less money needed for law enforcement all around, and less intrusive laws needed to support them.
Would the black marketeers be more willing if their risk of getting caught and going to jail for selling unlicenced pot was around, but the profit they could make was only around $20 an ounce? I sure wouldn't be. Why would the consumer go to the black market when they could go to a store and get their product for $20-50 an ounce? How come most people get their tobacco from, you guess it, stores? Black market tobacco, which is really the same tobacco just moved around from state to state, is a blip on the radar in the overall scheme of things. Sure, it can be a very profitable blip, but it's a blip nonetheless.
Your Amsterdam example is irrelevant. Large scale pot growing is not legal in the Netherlands, so the supply can not increase enough to drive prices down. Even then, the toleration has decreased prices down enough to where it beats US black market prices.
If the voters here legalize pot, I don't belive they will be setting the price of it. If I remember my capitalist system well enough, the market will dictate the price, as it should. Of course, if just an individual state legalizes pot, the price will still be high, as they have to deal with the Feds busting large scale growing opeations, and the supply will still be limited. Notice most other legal products don't have to go through that extra hassle?
All the stuff you mentioned this is going to drive up the prices will not drive it up anywhere near the black market price. Tobacco is the ultimate proof of that. It shares everything you mentioned, yet it is $5 or so an ounce, while the black market price of pot is $300 (at least) an ounce.
You're all caught up in this notion that since legal pot can be cheap it will be cheap. Government licensing, taxes, product liability insurance, etc. will drive up the price way beyond what it actually costs to manufacture.
171 posted on 08/20/2006 7:52:40 AM PDT by robertpaulsen
Manufacture? Why not just get a big flower pot and grow it? Seems to me the gov wont be able to drive up the cost then...now would they? ;) But seriously, in the end it will most likely be legalized in the entire nation at some point (or de-criminalized), sold in liquor stores or coffee houses, and regulated by the government (and taxed of course)....but manufacturing costs are low....you just plant a tiny seed and watch it grow like a weed. I doubt it will cost much more than it already does....$20 per 7 grams (1/4 an oz)......$30 per 14 grams ((1/2 an oz) That's right...you get a discount if you buy in bulk LOL). And if added taxes are become astronomical, people will just grow it for themselves. In essence, if legalized in the entire nation, organized crime is knocked out of the loop as really good quality crops already grow right here in the United States i.e. Hawaii, Humbolt County California, Arkansas, to name a few. Smuggling and imports would be unneccessary due to the abundance of the product already available. As it stands now...pot is, has been, and remains, a black market commodity until a legal method is made available to purchase it, yet the price has been relatively cheap and constant for several decades (price has not fluctuated). I'm not worried about cost increases: Pot heads are more clever than you may think...and thrifty too. Hehehe
P.S. (I saw a few posts that mentioed high college GPA's even though they smoked pot, so here's my 2 cents) I too graduated in the top 4% of my graduating class with honors (Magna Cum Laude) Bachelors of Science Degree (Psychology) Cumulative GPA: 3.91
AND I WAS STONNED EVERY DAY I WENT TO CLASS!!!
Could I have gotten a 4.0 if I didn't smoke? Maybe...but who cares? I outperformed 96% of my peers. And that's not too shabby. Cheers!