Posted on 01/01/2018 4:40:21 PM PST by Mariner
It was six hours past midnight, but the crowd inside the Berkeley Patients Group counted down the seconds.
“Happy New Year,” they yelled at precisely 6 a.m. as a cashier rang up the cost of three joints, a $45.37 purchase representing one of the first recreational marijuana sales in the state.
The moment marked the launch of a new industry in California, one that’s heavily regulated and taxed, with revenue reaching several billion dollars per year.
The day has been long anticipated by cannabis advocates who pushed for voters to pass Proposition 64 in November 2016, largely decriminalizing marijuana and allowing for the commercial sale of products to adults 21 or older.
Earlier, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin and Democratic state Sen. Nancy Skinner joined a couple dozen people outside the Berkeley Patients Group waiting for the first sales.
“I’m stoked about this historic moment not just for Berkeley but for the state of California.” Arreguin said. “This is a long time coming.”
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Yeah. Oregon usually has the Sec of State disqualify enough signatures to keep “bad” laws from coming to a vote. Failing that, a friendly judge can be found to overturn.
The spittle is in your imagination only. My demeanor is better described as "matter of factly."
The $21T boondoggle known as the "War on Poverty" is another prime example of government run amok, outside any constitutional restraint, and ties in quite nicely with my example of the Great Depression:
What do you think was going on with this "War on Poverty"?
Clearly it is proof of my STATEMENT: To wit: Billions of dollars and untold lives have been wasted in the war on pot, to little effect beyond expanding government police powers.
I have no idea how you are breaking out lives and dollars wasted on pot from the lives and dollars of the drug war in general. I would also suggest that perhaps you don't recognize the beneficial effect because you aren't looking at the issue in the proper manner. *Hint* (Logistical growth curve)
Support your arguments.
Convince me that you are amenable to reason and I will. I've had all too many of these discussions where it doesn't matter what you present, people are still going to believe what they want to believe, and so therefore I am loath to go to much effort when I already know what the end result is going to look like.
“Just learned there’s a $9.25 per oz excise tax on homegrown. “
I’m sure everyone is lining up at the Franchise Tax Board to declare the proceeds of their grow lol
"Convince me that you are amenable to reason and I will. I've had all too many of these discussions where it doesn't matter what you present, people are still going to believe what they want to believe, and so therefore I am loath to go to much effort when I already know what the end result is going to look like."
Now why on earth would I want to convince you of anything?
You began your involvement with me in this thread by denying facts. Not with other facts, but with bald and easily disproved assertions as to what I'd written.
When I'd clearly shown your error you then claimed that I'd drawn conclusions, or made assertions, when clearly I had not...
Yet now, you aspire to be "matter of factly", and demand that I convince you of my amenability to reason before you'll support your own nonsense?
Balderdash!
However, to directly address my "Amenability to reason"; No.
No argument will ever convince me that the Federal Government has powers and responsibilities beyond those specifically listed in the Constitution, or that any boondoggle that's been thus far undertaken to that end has been anything other than an unmitigated disaster for freedom and the rule of law; a blatant theft of property, money, or powers from the states and the People; or in the worst of cases, simple tyranny.
Still love ya' though,
-Hugh
That is incorrect. I gave you your one fact, even though it was misleading, and I pointed out that the other things you stated were "facts" were not facts, but opinion.
Apparently there’s a lesser tax for leaf. I’m not so sure about this scheme. Washington allows no cultivation, OR allows 4 plants, and sun-bathed Cali gets 6, and taxes on the honor system? I’m sure the numbers won’t be what the public was told.
” I’m sure the numbers won’t be what the public was told.”
With every adult in CA legally authorized to grow 6 plants per year and keep all the product, I can’t imagine more than a few scenarios where people will actually PURCHASE weed.
The accounting and administration will cost more than the revenue it generates, BOTH for the retailer and the state.
Like I said, my cousin in Sonoma County got over 8 pounds from 6 plants this year. That’s not insubstantial.
He’ll give an ounce to any family or friend who asks. Also legal.
6 plants per household, but still. I can see some couples buying an investment home and living seperately. . People showing up to pay their bud tax conjures images of Jeff Spicolli emptying his pockets on the convenience store counter, trying to scrape together enough change to pay.
I am sure it’s 6 plants per adult, up to 2 adults per household.
Could be. Medical? Recreational? Just about everything on the web is now out of date.
Except now our SOS is Dennis Richardson, who would’ve been Governor if Kitzhaber’s corruption had been unveiled...he won’t pull the shenanigans Brad Avakian pulled.
Brown keeps overreaching, but I don’t know it it registers with electorate. This State may be lost.
It may.
I’ve been here almost 35 years and it’s heartbreaking how much we’ve changed.
See ya’,
Ed
Been thinking about that, lately. I was brought to this area as a kid in ‘69. The sand dunes were wide open; you’d hear stories of hippy and lesbian bonfires. Anyone could go in there and camp. Then, the Feds made it a National Recreation Area, and charged you to park, confined camping to designated areas, sold permits for vehicles, mushroom picking. Last month a friend’s daughter told me the State Police had a command post up at Riley Creek. They were flying drones, looking for pickers of ‘’shrooms, be they psychedelic or others picked without a permit. A friend of hers was up there and a trooper dropped down from a tree, landed beside her, wearing a ghlllie suit.
Looks like my fishing license will cost $40 this year. Land of the fee.
That is sickening, how they’re shutting down OUR public lands!
Thanks.
Ed
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