“We’re not talking constant care or major effort here, no more than a flower or tomato plant.”
Really? And you base that on what? Personal experience, or Personal bias?
Yes, if you just stick a seed in the dirt, water it on occasion, and wait for nature to do it’s thing, you will have a plant. Whether the result is worthwhile, well, with the small amount of care and gardening skill you ascribe to it, let’s just say it probably would be poor quality at best.
Just the same as if I simply took a gallon of unpasturized apple juice and left it to ferment, hoping when it was done, six month later, that it would be a tasty drink of hard cider.
I don’t think anyone is claiming that no one would grow their own, and I imagine, at the beginning many would try. Provided, of course, they have a yard to grow it in, or are inclined to set up a green house/grow room indoors (with all the equipment needed to do that), just as probably happened after alcoholic drug prohibition went away.
Again though, once people realize that it’s just as easy to buy it, taxes included, they’ll most likely go that route.
Now, let’s go to the math portion of this.
Let’s say, cost wise, it costs the manufacturer 1 dollar to produce a pack of Marijuana Cigarettes (that cost is probably pretty high, but for sake of argument, that would include growing it, processing it, packaging it, and shipping the end result, per pack, based on the current Cigarette model, 20 cigarettes = 1 pack).
Now, wholesale cost, pre-tax, is 3 dollars per pack, and Joe the Liquor store owner wants his mark-up, Let’s say 3 dollars, because Joe is in this to make money too.
Now, let’s say, that Uncle Sam wants 5 dollars per pack in taxes.
$12 dollars per pack, taxes included.
Considering that people who are currently using Marijuana would pay close to 120 dollars for the same amount of Marijuana, at current prices, and are not rushing out to grow their own now, what makes you think if the price was 1/10 that, taxes included, they’d be any more inclined to?
Considering that people who are currently using Marijuana would pay close to 120 dollars for the same amount of Marijuana, at current prices, and are not rushing out to grow their own now, what makes you think if the price was 1/10 that, taxes included, they’d be any more inclined to?”
$12 per pack eh?
I plant ( no harder to grow than a tomato plant) will yield 16 oz of pot.
16 oz of pot would roll 500 of those MJ smokes, or 25 of your $12 packs. That still comes to $300 for growing the equal of one freaking tomato plant!
Now, millions of people plant gardens every year to grow a couple dozen tomato plants, can and store them to save at best, $50 or so over what they could buy them for.
Sorry, still too freaking to grow!