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 ...
“Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said the cash-starved state could generate more than a billion dollars by taxing pot growers and sellers.”
Right...most of the pot is being grown by Mexican Drug cartels by illegal aliens, but they’re going to ‘tax’ them...LOL....SF won’t even asked for status from an alien....they’ll probably give the cartels a bail out.....
Not very liberating for the unborn is it?
I’m actually for the feds getting clean out of the way in terms of drug laws and letting the states destroy their own civil order if they want to.
Baby killing’s another matter. If the feds can’t protect people from the states, the federal government has no reason to exist.
So you are claiming then that Alcohol products don’t bring in Tax Dollars?
That is what you are implying, isn’t it?
As for “simply sticking a freaking seed in the ground”, it’s a bit more complicated than that, if you intend on what you grow to be anything you’d want to injest.
I dare say the same thing about alcohol.
How difficult is it to take the raw materials, we’ll say apple juice for the sake of example, into an enclosed container and simply wait for it to ferment?
Both types of drugs, alcohol or marijuana, take time, effort and patience to produce. The time element being the critical factor.
Simply put, if it takes you six months to a year to grow harvestable marijuana, or brew drinkable beer, only a scant few are going to go through that effort if they can just as easily go to a liquor store and purchase it without all the fuss.
So, again, I’d like you to clarify your idea that alcoholic drug products don’t bring in any tax dollars.
I can’t back up this poster’s assertion but I’ll make the statement that they wouldn’t need to release prisoners due to overpopulation that ‘should’ be there, if there weren’t the number of people in jail due to pot related issues.
No doubt, this is not a single state issue. Once the genie is out of the bottle it will race eastward.
Personally, I hope it happens but I am not going to “work” for it.
(There is a joke in that, for those who wish to find itm)
It’s no harder to grow than a tomato plant.
12 plants would keep even the hard core dope head stoned 24/7 for a year!
It will bring in no taxes.
I had an acquaintance who grew some weed for personal consumption back in the day. To suggest that one need only stick a seed in the ground is pretty naive.
Plant. Determine gender of plant. Separate male from female plants. Grow plants. After the plants bud and mature, cut and hang upside down to dry out, and concentrate the active ingredients.
Not hard, but requires a level of effort most would be unwilling to undertake if readily available at the DopeStore (tm).
Why would people buy mj from the Mexican cartels in a legal, well-regulated market?
John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said marijuana, not heroin or cocaine, is the "bread and butter," "the center of gravity" for Mexican drug cartels that every year smuggle tons of it through the porous U.S.-Mexico border. Of the $13.8 billion that Americans contributed to Mexican drug traffickers in 2004-05, about 62 percent, or $8.6 billion, comes from marijuana consumption.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/022208dnintdrugs.3a98bb0.html
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Let me ask you this. Is it your position that the cartels would or would not lose most of their funding if mj were regulated like alcohol?
It wont bring in any taxes.
Once you detach yourselves from ideological aversion to federal regulations and/or tired sophistry and look at the situation on the ground, you can only agree with me. California can’t survive legalization of drugs. It’s true, California has done plenty to destroy themselves and doesn’t need this legislation to help it along. This is just a chapter in their Civilization Self Destruction Handbook.
I’m for the states deciding this for themselves and letting them destroy themselves. We in Oklahoma, for the most part, would rather not help support California’s habits though. We’re forced to by our oppressive Federal government. Until our government stops mandating Oklahoma law and the laws of other states, we should have a say in what happens in California. Once the feds are reigned in, we can talk about eliminating drug laws.
Again, While some may grow their own, your implication that ALL will bears no weight in reality.
If your claims had any merit, then alcoholic drug products would bring in no tax dollars either.
BTW, you still haven’t stepped up to the plate on that yet.
I don’t disagree that some might, and probably will go the grow their own route. Just as many Home Brewers currently do with beer. Nature of the Beast I suppose.
However, the vast majority of Beer Drinkers do not, nor ever have Brewed their own beer. So each of them has paid taxes for their drug of choice.
Same for Wine Drinkers, or Hard Liquor drinkers. How many people bottle their own Tequila for personal use, simply to avoid the taxes?
Whiskey?
Vodka?
I mean, using your logic, one can assume that every drop of alcoholic drug products produced were done so at home for personal use, in an effort to avoid the taxes, and not one dime of tax money has been made from the sale of it.
In the world of reality, that is simply not the case.
Nor would it be the case regarding Legalized Marijuana.
I think it would bring in some taxes, but you’re right - not near the amount the article implies.
What it would do tho’ is massively cut expenses that go towards enforcing the law, and arresting, trying and jailing the users. CA in particular could find better uses for those expenses.
new California State Motto:DING! DING! DING!
“Dave’s not here man...”
We have a winner!
Why do you say that, and what do you mean? People are already using the drugs, just covertly. Why do you think making it overt would be so damaging? And lets try to keep the discussion just on pot, since that's all they are talking about.
And plus, why tax it? Are they for more taxes or less? They want the government to become pushers?
“Let me ask you this. Is it your position that the cartels would or would not lose most of their funding if mj were regulated like alcohol?”
At this point in this mess, legalize it. The only chance we have in any of it is to cut off the funding of the criminals. (Same can be said about congress, administration....:<)
True. Add to that: even if this passed, I have no doubt it would include a bloated, corrupt, ineffective (at best) bureaucracy to oversee its administration; thereby eating up all supposed profits with “new jobs.”
“Do we have any Doritos?”
That’s why Ann Coulter said they should be called the Pot Party.
Pot is damn near harmless when compared to booze and many other vices. I am a states rights guy also. The prohibition of pot is a pointless waste of time and money. I am not for legalization of any other drugs. I don’t smoke pot and haven’t for over 20 years.
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