Posted on 03/14/2009 2:20:58 PM PDT by Painesright
Video of Ron Paul debating Stephen Baldwin about the legalization of marijuana on Larry King Live March 13, 2009.
So he’s wrong about free markets? . . . or is that just more hyperbole.
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Free Markets???
See what BlackElk said in post 98.
Explains. A. Lot.
"Our estimates indicate that between 6% and 8.5% of global cigarette consumption is smuggled."
That indicates some places are overly taxing cigarettes. From wiki:
In the UK, many people now illegally import cigarettes, or buy those illegally imported, due to the increasing tax. A packet is less than half the price in some other countries, making illegal importers a large profit, while still providing comparatively very cheap cigarettes.
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In canada alone the black market cigarette business is about 1.6 billion $$. Even if the demand is 1/10 of that in the USA, It would be worth about the same dollar wise. Plenty to sustain the cartels.
I agree that when taxes are too high, black markets flourish. I don't know which outfits run the underground tobacco trade, but if the government continues to raise taxes, then expect violent struggles over the untaxed loot.
None of the above changes the fact that well regulated and reasonably taxed marijuana commerce would deprive the cartels of most of the $8.6 billion they get from it now.
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Booze would be a decent sized black market as well.
Now alcohol is an example of a well regulated and reasonably taxed US market. Do you have any figures for the size of the black market for alcohol in the US?
You said — “Wow. You sure know a lot about pot smokers.”
—
It’s not too hard to have that be the case these days. They’re all around you... LOL...
I’ve had the unfortunate experience of having it all to close to me...
I think there are many, many legal drugs that can impair driving, including over-the-counter cold meds, not to mention the plethora of prescription pain killers and anti-depressants. Should we ban them all?
be under the Socialist control of pot heads who waived the white flag of surrender in the WOD and the WOT.
Better, right?
What a cash crop hemp and pot would be, then we need to drill for oil and export export export and become the richest nation per capita in history. And oh yeah, an added benefit would be that the mafia would lose about 65% of their current revenue. Crime would shrink overnight.
Sad, sad waste of life really. It’s a slowly progressing life of laziness. They reach their peak of activity around age 20. It’s all downhill from there. Oh they may start out with a good job, but each time they get laid off, the next job isn’t as good, then the next one after that... on and on till they are night watchmen somewhere.
You've just described someone I know. He smells of patchouli or something like that.
Did I mention he's a vegan?
An acquaintance observed something about vegans: almost all of them she'd met were involved in drugs of some sort. Her theory was that they felt a lack of certain essential chemicals that might have been supplied by animal protein, and they made up the difference with THC or harder substances. Most of the vegans I've run into chose THC or nicotine, at the very least.
Yeah, so what? The mob would be that much bigger if booze were still illegal. Think about it. It's just practical to legalize something that is used as much as pot is. And btw, the founding fathers grew it and there are hundreds of other uses for hemp other than messing up your head. It was even used to make uniforms for the US military at one time. Our founding fathers valued human rights and freedoms over the pseudo-security the drug warriors feel over the current unconstitutional situation.
Any "losses" will just be made up in other markets, like heroine. Like any businessman, if you loose part or all of one market, you find another.
But to think that the government will have "reasonable taxes" on MJ, or coming soon, ANY SIn tax market is absurd. As for the size of the alcohol bootleg market, I don't know. I would imagine it's comparable to the Canadian illegal booze market, adjusted for population of course. Billions probably. And I don't mean home brew, but offshore untaxed "good stuff" smuggled ashore. Check the government BATF web site
tend to think drug legalization is a rather silly thing to fight for (why hurt yourself?)***
At least on the federal level, I think it’s a stupid thing to fight against and Republicans will have to adopt a state’s right policy if Zero sets the standard by allowing states to control it’s legalization the way it should be done.
Oh come on. the hemp used for fabric wasn’t the “mess up your head” kind.
The reason it too was banned was because it made a good cover crop for the illegal crap.
Our founding fathers weren’t potheads.
You said — “Should we ban them all?”
Only the ones that are already banned... :-)
It also has to do with breathing in smoking embers from something that has been burning. It never seemed too healthy to me...***
That’s why some people vaporize it. Next.
That’s why I said — “It also has to do with...”
LOL...
Exactly. Joe Biden was one of the biggest War-on-Some-Druggers in congress. Sorry, on this one I'll stand with Ron Paul rather than Joe Biden.
I know one guy who got into coke for a while. All it did was make him party harder and drink a lot more till he killed his wife, her brother then himself one day, leaving his 9 year old son all messed up, 6 year old daughter, and 3 year old daughter orphans.
It all started with pot though.
“Lib = Liberal = Libertarian.
No difference.”
HUGE difference. Libertarians believe in as small a government as you need. Liberals believe in as big a government as is possible. I would likely vote libertarian if it wasn’t a throw away vote.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day. He’s right about MJ. Don’t use the stuff, don’t advocate others use the stuff, penalize folks if using dope causes accidents, etc. Otherwise, we should own our own bodies.****
Personally, I think booze (a legalized drug) is more harmful than marijuana and I think Porn is more harmful to our society than both of those two drugs combined; and I hear NOBODY calling for the illegalization of Porn, because way more people use porn than both of those two drugs combined.
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