California would become the first state in the nation to legalize marijuana for recreational use under a bill introduced today by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco.
The proposal would regulate marijuana like alcohol, with people over 21 years old allowed to grow, buy, sell and possess cannabis – all of which is barred by federal law.
Ammiano said taxes and other fees that accompany regulation could put more than a billion dollars a year into state coffers at a time when revenues continue to decline. He said he anticipates the federal government could soften its stance on marijuana under the Obama administration.
“We could in fact have the political will to do something, and certainly in the meantime this is a public policy call and I think it’s worth the discussion,” Ammiano said. “I think the outcome would be very healthy for California and California’s economy.”
Well.. If you can grow and smoke I’m sure nobody is going to pay tax on # of plants, especially ones who smokes.
But not everyone is going to grow it, you can brew your own beer, you can grow your own orange/apple/tobacco and all the vegetables you need but people still buy them at the store.
Growing good quality weed is not as easy, you think, you have to invest on a tons of equipments and pay for electricity. Most people will just go to local pot store and buy some and tax will be added on when you made purchase.
Legalize Meth and tax it if you want to generate 10 Billion $
Money is all that matters!
# 18 Mr. Fusion said, “Bullshit.”
Correct.
However, http://newsday.com/news/health/ny-hspot17-nws,0,788749.story
#17 Ralph
I concur. Except all the angst and paranoia due to its legal status kinda takes the shine off.
However that vast majority of people will probably just buy it, thus generating tax revenue.
For crying out loud! Smoking marijuana doesn’t make you steal..there is a difference between “doing drugs” and smoking a reefer..it’s an herb…you can just grow it in the dirt with a seed. Lung cancer? Isn’t that for the individual to decide for themselves? Cigarettes are certainly legal..as for booze vs pot…I vote for pot simply because alcohol is notorius for breeding violence. It’s a known fact that pot is everywhere..why are we filling up our prisons and ruining our kids lives(who will always check it out)by throwing them in jail and giving them a record over something we all know is an HERB? Wouldn’t you rather see booze and DRUGS illegal and go back to “Make love not war”..”flower power”, back to the basics of organic & not synthetic? Weed will ALWAYS be here & your kids will ALWAYS be exposed to it..maybe its time we look at finding a way to fight the drug war by getting everyone to smoke weed and eat doritos.
[Poppies are just flowers that grow in the dirt from a seed... - ed.]
# 25 bohemiansooap said, “Smoking marijuana doesn’t make you steal..there is a difference between “doing drugs” and smoking a reefer..it’s an herb…”
And, opium is a flower. Bad justification. Also, shows lack of education.
#10, deowll, “Smoking a joint a day amounts to smoking a pack a day as for as lung damage goes.”
Nonsense. Studies have shown that people inhale marijuana smoke directly into the lungs and hold it there for a while. Tobacco smokers normally cool the smoke in their mouths for a moment before taking it into their lungs and then exhale rather quickly. This hot smoke damages the cilia and lining of your respiratory tract. I believe Mr Fusion has pointed you to one such study.
The real point here, though, is California (like most states) has established a tax base that is heavily reliant on tobacco while at the same time doing whatever it can to deny people the use of that tobacco. Now they need to replace that lost revenue. And they should probably be able to get away with taxing it at a much higher rate than tobacco or alcohol. Damn the effect on the public health!
Personally, I’m sick to death of seeing people go to jail or lose their jobs for smoking a little weed. I am in favor of decriminalizing it but for god’s sake let’s not claim it’s healthier than other sins.
What I don’t understand is how the state is going to tax the sales of pot. If they are allowing people to grow and sell their own pot (which people already DO!) how are they going to collect taxes from private sales? It’s not like they are earning any tax revenue from illegal sales of it as it is. I don’t think drug pushers will start paying sales tax.
The only way this would work is if it went commercial. Like buying cigarettes and beer at a local liquor store, you can tax the fuck out of them, rather than buying dime bags from your stoner friend.
Ok, so pot becomes legal and is taxed, just like beer, booze and tobacco. They start jacking up the tax, like they did with tobacco, claiming “health reasons”. People getting pulled over for traffic violations and they start doing drug tests, just like they do for booze. So on and so forth…
Sounds like were just exchanging one “minor problem” for many more “problems”.
Hey, if it’s just about the money, let’s start taxing the internet, couldn’t be any harder than taxing home grown pot…
#6 you’re a douchebag
#10 that’s wrong.
#12 exactly my thinking!
#22 It wouldn’t generate billions. It can only do that when it’s contraband on the black market. Once it’s legal and commercialized the price would drop like a rock to be competitive.
#25 Um no, if you tried to smoke another plant it could cause a lot of harm, if not kill you. Just because it’s “natural” dosen’t mean it still can’t harm or kill you.
>>>> Down with Pot Prohibition! <<<<
#26 Paddy da Troll
Are you inferring that opium / heroin makes you steal? People only steal to feed their habit because its ILLEGAL and very EXPENSIVE, not to mention cut with god know what on the street.
Personally I’d rather see junkies high, healthy and happy rather than strung out and stealing my shit or in jail learning to steal my shit quicker and better.
Doesn’t matter, won’t happen. Pot won’t be legal for the same reason gay marriage isn’t more popular. Magic. Most of the country is fucking retarded idiots who believe in magically invisible beings who float in the sky and tell us what kind of meat we can eat and who we can have sex with and what is moral. It’s psychotic. Magic isn’t real. There is no invisible god who cares who I fuck or what I smoke. If you believe in an invisible unprovable magical being, I can’t argue you out of it…but you’re insane.
Drug crimes make up about 20% of the prison population. So even if you legalized ALL drugs, your crime problem is about 80% of what it is now, maybe a little less if you say it gets rid of other crimes as well.
They could grow it in state prisons and sell it in special shops, then most of the money generated by the sale could go strait to the state.
Legalizing drugs: desperate attempt to rake more tax monies for govt. Thats all there is to it.
But since marijuana will fall under ATF (obviously), it will be taxed to death (like cigarettes are) so nothing will change!
Many people will still buy smuggled illegal- but tax-free – marijuana from the same dealers…
“Ok, so pot becomes legal and is taxed, just like beer, booze and tobacco. They start jacking up the tax, like they did with tobacco, claiming “health reasons”. People getting pulled over for traffic violations and they start doing drug tests, just like they do for booze. So on and so forth…”
OK… and? We stop jailing adults for their personal vices and enforce laws against those who endanger others. Smoking pot is stupid and lethal when it is done long enough, but it’s not my business if an adult wants to do that to themselves. However, when they endanger others while engaged in this activity they should be arrested. Seems pretty Constitutional to me.
So many pros, so few cons.
1. Increase revenue
2. Decrease expenses – less enforcement costs and we reduce the overcrowded prisons
3. These combine to help with the current budget crisis in many stats, especially California
4. Safer or at least not any worse than alcohol or tobacco, it makes no sense for it to be illegal
5. We really have to start learning from history. Prohibition failed so miserably with alcohol and we are going through the same thing with marijuana.
I just wrote a post on this as well – for more info check out http://geekpolitics.com/legalize-marijuana/
4. Don’t need more fuzzy-brained people killing kids on highways.
5. Prohibition just caused traffickers to move to more dangerous drugs, as would be the case if mj was legalized. Negating #3.
RBG
Never will happen. The gov needs the weed demon to take away your rights.
Remember all those crack babies.
Oh Ya, where are all those crack babies anyway ?
Yes and it also causes a maniacal rage called….”Reefer madness” {echo} madness, madness{/echo}
Guys, the 1950s called. They want their propaganda back.