3.5 grams.
The Dems still control the crack and heroin trade on the Hill.
Posted on 11/05/2014 10:01:46 PM PST by Olog-hai
The national marijuana legalization debate is moving into the backyard of a Republican-controlled Congress, now that the District of Columbia has voted to legalize growing, possessing and sharing small amounts of pot.
Voters in Oregon and Alaska also approved legalization initiatives, joining Colorado and Washington state, where pot is already legally available.
But while states out West enjoy both autonomy and distance, federal lawmakers have the power to quash any District law they don’t like. And with legalization getting a foothold on the East Coast for the first time, the District’s initiative could force Congress to make decisions affecting the future of legal pot nationwide. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
So let’s take some of the laziest people on the planet and legalize ganja for ‘em. That should work.
3.5 grams.
The Dems still control the crack and heroin trade on the Hill.
Having lived around the region for a couple of years, I can say that three-quarters of the adult population on the east side of DC are at least once-a-week smokers. It really doesn’t change anything to say it’s suddenly legal. The challenge here....after you make it legal, and a guy puts up a store-front...to suddenly find out that with expenses and taxes...it’s NOT profitable. The street guy still wins.
Isn’t that what is happening in Colorado, that they are not pulling in nearly what they expected in terms of taxes from the sale or pot?
It’s an excellent example.
Ask yourself....two guys. One is the street dealer selling pot, and has 400 regular customers. He has no business front, no employees, no heat or utilities, no IRS paperwork, rarely deals with banks, and just has expenses with his car.
The second guy is the legit guy, with a store-front, heating and cooling, plenty of IRS paperwork, deals with banks, and pays state taxes (and federal income taxes) on his take. The second guy might have 2,000 regular customers (that might be the one positive). But at the end of the year....in terms of commerce and profit, who came out ahead?
Some Republicans, all Libertarians and the vast number of Democrats all advocated this direction....with taxation being one of the top three advantages. A year into Colorado’s episode....the street guy is doing better than the legit guy. This was predictable.
Rush Limbaugh had a segment on this when a libertarian called in this week. Rush handled it fairly well, pointing out the wider implications of allowing pot use on an unrestricted basis, and how the government is itching to tax it severely.
Bear in mind, that for every pot user obtaining the substance through legal channels, the following benefits accrue:
1.) reduction in law enforcement assets toward searching, seizing, prosecuting, and incarcerating those who produce and use cannabis.
2.) standards that introduce an element of safety for those who use cannabis for health or recreation.
3.) an opportunity for revenue that inhibits overuse and abuse.
The downside, IMO, is a population stupid enough to vote for Obama and lazy enough to feed from the trough of those who expend labor and virtue in the interest of bettering all people. That’s a fairly big down side.
I’d like to take a toke now and then without fear of prosecution, and having no responsibilities in private. But those occasions are rare. I’m willing to undergo physical tests, psychological tests, and pay a small license fee if my fellow citizens are willing to allow me that occasion.
In a more practical vein, this is one area where conservatives, if they think about it, could make some compromise and very likely win a significant amount of support from people who want to relax a little and have decent heads on their shoulders in the way of conscience and reason; who abhor the notion of killing babies in the womb and abusing every bodily orifice in the interest of self-pleasure. I surmise that population is quite large.
I don’t think the libertarians cared about the taxes. They just didn’t want to spend money going after all those people.
No dice, they want legal pot, make them have to give the people legal guns first!
So should we legalize over-the-counter heroin ? (prescription is, of course, commonly available in a variety of mixes).
We could then have the pharma companies produce it here instead of having the CIA produce it in Afghanistan and incur the huge cost of having our military there to protect the operation.
We could put the heroin into schools right along with vaccinations to promote the product.
Pretty hard to have any credibility on the war on drugs/drug addiction when your nation’s highest leaders have made drugs/drug addiction legal in their own backyard.
” federal lawmakers have the power to quash any District law they don’t like.”
They have the power but would it be wise to do it? I don’t think so.
So should we legalize over-the-counter heroin ? (prescription is, of course, commonly available in a variety of mixes). <-——
Sounds like you answered your own question.
Possibly. It bears further scrutiny, control, and measures that addend toward the greater good. I do not see it as likely, though. In the case of heroine my gut feeling is that it is exponentially more harmful than MJ, and thus requiring much tighter control. A war against it, in the way we’ve been conducting it, is something we should look at more closely. The two substances are entirely different as to effect, potency, and potential to physically induce and harm the body.
question will pot legalization create more Conservatives? The pot sellers will now have to deal with the IRS, taxes and govt regulations.
Don’t you think Congress should maybe leave this until oh, i don’t know some REAL issues are dealt with like border security, the Keystone pipeline,Obamacare, defense spending, ISIS, etc etc etc etc
“So let’s take some of the laziest people on the planet and legalize ganja for ‘em. That should work”
I don’t think the law applies to Congressmen.....
Go back to the 1990s and read the old commentary that people used to write about why it ought to be legalized. Generally, everyone wanted to make it look like cigarette-like taxes and how the money would help someone (like in the south when we tell folks that casino-gambling or lotto profits within a state will help fund schools....it’s always a bogus statement but people like to hear it).
Do you support leaving intrastate marijuana regulation to the states, per the Tenth Amendment?
Once the knuckle draggers figure out, dirt, water, and sunshine = free weed.
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