Posted on 02/23/2009 10:50:40 AM PST by SmithL
California may be going to pot - literally.
Marijuana would be grown and sold openly to adults 21 and older under legislation introduced this morning by a San Francisco lawmaker.
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said the cash-starved state could generate more than a billion dollars by taxing pot growers and sellers.
Ammiano predicted that the public would support loosening marijuana laws that require substantial public funds to enforce.
"I think there's a mentality throughout the state and the country that this isn't the highest priority," he said. "And that maybe we should start to reassess."
Before California could legalize marijuana, however, it also might have to persuade the federal government to alter its prohibition on cannabis.
Ammiano said federal officials may be receptive to such changes under the administration of President Barack Obama.
"We may be on a parallel track here," said Ammiano, a freshman legislator who was sworn into office less than three months ago.
The Drug Policy Alliance, an advocate of loosening pot laws, applauded Ammiano's proposal.
"Marijuana already plays a huge role in the California economy," said Stephen Gutwillig, the group's California state director. "It's a revenue opportunity we literally can't afford to ignore any longer."
Ammiano's bill, Assembly Bill 390, would allow marijuana to be sold openly - like alcohol - in retail outlets statewide.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
“It’s just too damn easy to grow if it is made legal.
A couple of plants will yield what the casual user would consume in a year.
Any idiot would learn real quick how to identify the male plants and kill them.
We’re not talking constant care or major effort here, no more than a flower or tomato plant.”
You sound like a bit of an expert; would you care to give us step by step instructions, so we’ll all be ready when it’s legalized?
You haven't produced any. Why is that?
Exactly! And how many people grow their own tobacco despite the high tax on commercially grown? The same ratio will probably hold true for marijuana. Unless, of course the tax is set too high, which I suspect they are getting close to with tobacco.
I’m not the one spewing Reefer Madness propaganda around here.
I haven’t stated anything as fact, other than pointing out that you, and others are basing your arguments purely on bias and emotions, rather than fact, while attempting to pass off your views as fact.
Example 16 oz of harvestable Marijuana from a single plant. Great! Prove it.
Even your own numbers, 7 oz from one source, over a pound from another. Quite a gap, don’t you agree?
Yet, of course, you’re more than happy to “round up” when it suits you. Quite the generous assumption on your part, especially coupled with that “I’ll trust the police estimates over some Left Wing Dopers” comment.
Simply put, with what we’re arguing here, history is on my side. When Alcoholic Drug Prohibition ended, and legal Alcoholic Drug sales resumed, and taxed, they did become a reliable source of Tax Revenue.
Regardless of the fact that some people were able to Brew their own Beer, Bottle their own wines, or distill their own hard liquor.
That fact remains that although people CAN do it, doesn’t automatically mean they WILL do it, which is the foundation for your entire argument against the idea of Legalizing and Taxing Marijuana.
Face it, we’ve tried it your way since 1937, and you are no closer to eliminating Marijuana now, than they were in 1937.
Like it or not, the only clear results of the WOD is Bigger Government, and huge amounts of spending for a Failed Government Program.
Did I mistakenly login into DU or something?
You accused the police of lying. A bit of projection, it appears.
Where did I accuse the police of Lying?
Over inflating, yes. When average yield numbers are less than half of the stated numbers, what would you call that?
Is it understandable why such over-inflating occurs? Yes, all things considered.
However, I would tend to let a Botanist be a more reliable judge of things like average yields of a particular plant, over Law Enforcement personnel, whose job doesn’t, nor shouldn’t, include determining the average yield of a Marijuana plant.
“You accused the police of lying.”
So?
Nonsense. Look at the medical marijuana dispensaries in California and the “coffeeshops” in the Netherlands. These places do gangbusters business selling expensive pot to people who could grow their own. Medical marijuana card holders can grow their own. The Dutch can grow up to five plants and not worry about being arrested. Yet the coffeeshops and the medical marijuana dispensaries do big business and in both cases the government is collecting sales taxes. California is already bringing in millions of dollars a year on sales taxes on medical marijuana. These shops will sell pot at prices up to $20 or $30 a gram or more to people who could just grow their own. Hardly any grow their own though. They walk into a nice clean shop and select from a wide variety of quality product because they don't want to mess with growing their own and they like the variety these shops offer.
Back during alcohol Prohibition people would drink just about anything. The quality and the taste really weren't big concerns because people didn't have much choice. They had to take what they could get. Then when alcohol became legal again people found their favorite brands and not many wanted to mess with the stuff some yahoo was cooking up out in the woods. They wanted store bought alcohol that was produced in a regulated industry. These coffeeshops in the Netherlands and the medical marijuana dispensaries in California buy their product from the black market. When the shops are purchasing their product from a regulated industry even more people will want to go to them because they will have some assurance that the product they are buying is not moldy and it doesn't have toxic pesticides or other chemicals on it. In time people will have their favorite brands or varieties and they won't want anything to do with crappy homegrown.
You said pot is as easy to grow as tomatoes. I doubt it's that easy because it takes longer to produce and they have to pick the pot at just the right time and dry and cure it just right, but there is no reason why it should cost hundreds of dollars a pound to produce it other than the fact that it is illegal. In a regulated environment it will be grown on large farms by farmers using modern agricultural methods like they use for other crops. They'll mechanize the process as much as possible. They'll find uses for the whole plant and not just the buds. They'll bring production costs down to a fraction of what they are today. More importantly all the added costs associated with the risk of arrest and seizure will be gone. There won't be so many middlemen who all want to make a hefty profit to justify the risk they are taking. There won't be people getting paid a few grand to drive cars packed with a couple of hundred pounds of weed. A truck driver will be hauling many tons of it in something like a Budweiser truck for less money than the mule who hauls a couple of hundred pounds gets paid.
In no time wholesale prices will drop through the floor, and they'll keep dropping as competition forces producers to cut costs further. The only way we'll be able to keep retail prices anywhere close to where they are today is with high taxes. Even with really high taxes the costs to consumers could still be considerably lower than they are today. They're going to be able to walk into a nice clean store and choose from a wide variety of reasonably priced quality product even when taxes are figured in. We will clean up on tax revenues, on sales taxes and excises and all the taxes on the incomes of law abiding Americans working in the regulated industry and the taxes they pay on the things they buy with the money coming from the regulated industry.
Amen
“So, how much can I get for ten bucks?”
I remember $10 “lids” circa 1971.
As opposed to the FReepers sympathetic to the pro-drug warrior and big government Republican Party?
This could be the handbook on how to destroy a civilization though.
Note: Pot is grown in CA ILLEGALLY by ILLEGAL ALIENS in state parks and public land. It is also smuggled through the border.
I would say that you don't know what the word "average" means.
OK, I’ll bite.
I would take you for the “Average” Pro-Drug War Type.
Am I close?
A typical brick from mexico, 100 bucks a key.
It opened up like a bag of blow-in fiberglass insulation, and you had to wash the sugar out.
Or so my research discovered.
Whatever.
The entire SW has become a free-fire zone because of the war on drugs.
Legalize it, tax the hell out of it.
Hell, have Phillip Morris market it. Joe-Super-Duper-Cool.
I don’t care. Idiots will do what they do, and we’ve wasted enough time, talent, and treasure messing with it.
(No, I don’t use drugs, ever.)
ping
He didn't accuse the police of lying but I do.
I've been there when it happened and was a sworn law enforcement officer at the time. They routinely overestimate the amount, potency and street-value (especially street value) to look good to the higher-ups for evaluation.
One of my first experiences with the "prohibit it if someone's enjoying it" crowd happened during my first year as a rookie patrolman. We were dispatched to a duplex where the complainant was an older lady who lived alone and it was against her neighbor who lived in the other half of the duplex.
She actually requested us to listen to how quiet the neighbor was....not a sound coming from his side of the building. Because he was quiet, she was just certain that he had consumed the entire six-pack of beer she had seen him carry in earlier in the evening and the silence was because he was intoxicated (in his own home) and MUST be arrested for it.
When we told her there was nothing illegal about it and nothing we could do about it, she called the lieutenant and complained about it after we left.
Not even a little bit, sourceless one.
Sourceless One?
Oh Death, where is Thy Sting?
Prick us, do we not Bleed....
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