California Marijuana To Cost Just $1 Per Gram After November Ballot

dailycaller.com ^ | 7/3/2016 | Guy Bentley

[rktman]

One of the nation’s leading experts on marijuana and criminal justice fears California’s ballot to legalize marijuana could result in plummeting prices and rising rates of marijuana disorder.

Professor Mark Kleinman, an adjunct scholar at the Center for American Progress excoriates the Adult Use of Marijuana Act, which qualified for a November ballot June 28.

The bill allows commercial legalization of marijuana and six plants per household, with no limits on the quantity produced but a ban on sales and advertising to minors. California would impose a $9.75 tax (33 cents per gram) of flowers and a 15 percent sales tax on the retail price on top of the state’s regular sales tax.

[mumblypeg]

So the CA gubbermint will “allow” 6 plants per household?
Yeah, let’s create a new gubbermint job-—household maryjane inspector /counter. Register your pot plants, or face a fine. Or just grease the inspector’s palm with a sample of your primo bud.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
Sheesh.

[neefer]

With those prices, I can't see how a black market could survive within the state. PriceofWeed.com shows the average price per ounce at about $250 for high quality. However, California already supplies many other states with cannabis via the U.S. Postal service, especially months after the harvest season in less temperate climates has passed.

[ifinnegan]

“People smoking pot should not be voting”

Agree.

Pot makes liberals and nog just liberals, the looney moon bat kind.

[Ethan Clive Osgoode]

I can't see how a black market could survive within the state.

Well someone has to sell drugs to your kids. If the gov ain't gonna do it your friendly neighborhood biker gang will.

[Foundahardheadedwoman]

The cig companies will make out like bandits. Remember they bought up the best names and I guess trademarked them in the early ‘70’s. Just make easier for us old guys to get part time jobs since the young guys can’t pass a drug test. Until the Supremes make it illegal to test for pot.

[Pearls Before Swine]

..atf ... and/or the irs

[neefer]

If the price was so low that the black market didn't exist or was greatly reduced, it would be much harder for kids to get cannabis. I do share your concern about teenagers or children using the drug because the brain isn't fully developed until about age 22/23. People with schizophrenia should not use it either because it makes them violent - the opposite effect it has on others. If you really want to learn more (although I'm doubtful you want to take an objective look at the subject) I recommend reading a book called Weed the People. It's was written by a father of teenagers from Washington State. He took two years to fully investigate the cannabis industry in various states and details both the good and bad.

[Defiant]

It should cost the same as parsley, and be just as detested.

[Ketill Frostbeard]

I love fresh parsley ;)

[little jeremiah]

Hey, I love parsley - minced fine, in potato salad, lots of it.

[little jeremiah]

I’ve done a fair amount of reading about mj, for a layman, and it harms the brains of anyone, permanently lowers IQ the longer and more frequently it is used, and of course harms young people even more. It’s not just bad for people who are already schizo, it causes temporary and sometimes permament mental illness.

People who smoke it rarely want to know the facts.

PS - I used to smoke it when the THC was feeble compared to what it is now, and it was a powerful drug even then.

[Kickass Conservative]

In CA we have TV Ads running day and night blaming Big Tobacco for enticing children to Vape.

These go hand in hand with Commercials (Taxpayer funded BTW) about the evils of Cigarette Smoking.

In fact, it just became Law that you can’t purchase Tobacco Products unless you are 21 Years of Age. You can join the Military, get a Tattoo or Piercing and Vote when you’re 18, but you can’t buy a Cigarette.

At what age does this new Ballot Proposition allow you to purchase Weed?

Of course the whole thing is ridiculous since we already have Medical Marijuana. If you want to buy Weed legally, it’s a cinch. See Dr. Feelgood, tell him you can’t sleep well, give him $100 and get a Weed Card.

[neefer]

Don’t know where you get your facts from but lots of “studies” are funded by big beer companies that have a lot to lose if cannabis were legalized.

People make a big deal about THC being much higher in the cannabis grown today. It’s like comparing booze to beer. I can drink three light beers compared to one whiskey sour. No need to smoke the same quantity as back in the day.

[Carthego delenda est]

“If this does pass it’s going to kill the pot side of the drug trafficking trade and all of the crime and violence that goes with it.”

It MAY possibly reduce “crime and violence”, but there will always be those who don’t have money and don’t want to work but WILL rip off the growers they know of for their drugs and cash, and then there’s plenty of growers who will fight back. There’s plenty of people (gibs-me-dats) who have their every need taken care of who still feel the need to steal.

[little jeremiah]

No, these were studies by NIH and other health oriented organizations.

You like dope? Fine. Keep ignoring the facts, it becomes easier to ignore them the more you smoke.

I smoked 1967-1970. Not daily, either; then one time in the early 80s I smoked two hits and I was amazed how much more potent weed had gotten. Two hits got me totally wasted in early 80s. I have read about the massive increase in THC and what it does to people. Large studies, a good one from Australia in which thousands of people were studied for decades.

Keep toking, have fun, say good bye to the ability to think rationally, etc.

[little jeremiah]

Because the price of weed has gone down in my area, heroin and meth really picked up. MX cartels shifted a lot to heroin. Now heroin is all over the place. Dope dealers are in it for the money. If weed doesn’t get the $$ they want, they’ll sell something else. Crime won’t go down and crazed druggies will increase, just a different drugs. And a lot of people mix/n/match - weed and meth, heroin and weed, booze and any of them, opiates and any of them, etc. Makes people even more crazy!

[Dilbert San Diego]

So now that various states are legalizing recreational marijuana, where do we go from here?

Illegal drugs are illegal for a reason. The reasons being, that these drugs are dangerous to one’s health or mind or well being.

We should tread very carefully in this area.

I would be concerned we’re on a slippery slope. If we’re saying marijuana is ok, then is heroin ok too? What about other illegal drugs?

Have we gotten so liberal/libertarian in our outlook on things, that we are saying, we can’t make any judgements about people or situations?

And are we saying that since government can tax and regulate this activity, that means we should legalize and tax and regulate anything because government will get tax revenue from it?

We are saying that current marijuana laws are in the class of victimless crimes, aren’t we?

So then, when do we open the floodgates and legalize every banned substance, so that government and tax and regulate it?

And if we go down that road in that line of reasoning, then we should also legalize prostitution. Holy moley, I can just imagine the tax revenue available there.

But how can you justify any vice being illegal, if we’re saying the “holy grail” is whether government can tax something, and that we should not make any moral or ethical judgements about what people are doing????

[neefer]

Do I like dope? I like freedom and not a nanny state telling me I can't grow a plant or consume a drug that is far less harmful than alcohol. I laughed when you mentioned Australia - one of the most restrictive countries concerning cannabis use. The Aussie government sets up road blocks and swabs drivers mouths. It's a $2000 fine if you don't pass even though you may have consumed once weeks prior. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it's about money. The DEA, local law enforcement, jailers, pharmaceutical and alcohol manufacturers all stand to lose a lot of money if cannabis laws are overturned. It's only because of budget deficits that states are overturn prohibition.

The NIH has finally admitted that there "may" be benefits to cannabis use such as suppressing cancer growth. But, because it's so difficult to get permission to study the drug due to pharmaceutical lobbiest, very few studies can be conducted. A doctor in Arizona lost her job in an attempt to study the effects of cannabis in treating PTSD.

Here's what I found on the NIH website concerning IQ:
For example, a study showed that people who started smoking marijuana heavily in their teens and had an ongoing cannabis use disorder lost an average of eight IQ points between ages 13 and 38. The lost mental abilities did not fully return in those who quit marijuana as adults. Those who started smoking marijuana as adults did not show notable IQ declines.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, teenagers should not be using it. There appears to be no evidence that it rots the brains of adults.

[Ken H]

How about just following the Tenth Amendment and let each state decide those issues. Too simple and straightforward?

[TruthWillWin]

$43 per ounce in CA. How does that compare to Washington, Oregon, Colorado?