Legalization, Taxation, Education, Rehabilitation, has been my mantra for YEARS. Personally I'm very libertarian where 'drugs' are concerned. Our prison system is crippled under the weight of drug related criminals. And many of them are low level street dealers OR Joe Average who gets busted for his / her recreational amount of "X" drug.
Well, you gotta start somewhere.
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An
effort is building in Congress to change U.S. marijuana laws, including
moves to legalize the industrial production of hemp and establish a
hefty federal pot tax.
While passage this year could be a longshot, lawmakers from both parties
have been quietly working on several bills, the first of which
Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jared Polis of Colorado
plan to introduce Tuesday, Blumenauer told The Associated Press.
Polis' measure would regulate marijuana the way the federal government
handles alcohol: In states that legalize pot, growers would have to
obtain a federal permit. Oversight of marijuana would be removed from
the Drug Enforcement Administration and given to the newly renamed
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms, and it would remain
illegal to bring marijuana from a state where it's legal to one where it
isn't.
His office said Monday it doesn't yet have an estimate of how much the
taxes might bring in. But a policy paper Blumenauer and Polis are
releasing this week suggests, based on admittedly vague estimates, that a
federal tax of $50 per ounce could raise $20 billion a year. They call
for directing the money to law enforcement, substance abuse treatment
and the national debt.
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The only thing I see in this first proposal is the taxes are TOO high. $50 an ounce is, by my reckoning, is like a $50 tax on a fifth of liquor. That's kind of high. But there IS a 'hidden' savings here that I don't see ONE of the pointy headed elected worms looking into.
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How much money will be saved by taking minimal pot busts out of the legal system? Our for that matter, minimal coke busts? If they'd legalize this crap, put it in the liquor stores, or create DRUG stores just for the now illegal drugs, and we'd save Billions of $$$'s in interdiction, prosecution and prison costs.
It would also, like killing Prohibition did, take money off the streets and take power out of the hands of gangs. That can't be a bad thing.
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Schteveo
5 comments:
The crazy-high taxes are not a surprise, seeing how every city and state in the nation is bending over backwards dreaming up new ways to generate revenue in any way they can, and not always legally either.
As for the drugs, i agree with Steve. As i've always said, the so-called "war on drugs" was nothing more than an attempt to keep the sheeple quiet, create the "illusion" that something was being done, and above all, fill the pockets of lots of crooked politicians and bureaucrats.
Will things change? Yes, i believe they will, but it won't happen quickly. There are powerful forces (religious, political, law enforcement, etc.) that, for their own reasons, wish things to remain as they are.
Remember, there's always tons and tons of money to be made in fighting a war, but not much in winning one. The so-called "war on drugs", like the Viet Nam war, was meant to be fought, not won.
You're right it won't be quick to change. but it's taken groups like NORML over 40 years to get where we are today. But once there's a crack in the dam, sometimes the dam comes apart in a short time.
And you're right in many instances about the taxes too. We're going the other way here right now. Our (R) Legislature and (R) Governor are talking about tax cuts, to get businesses BACK in here.
Unfortunately, the (D)'s left the taxpayers owing $2B to the Feds on Unemployment money. So they've got to get more jobs in here, because they're going to cut unemployment pay to cover the losses. It was the only way to pay the feds. But that's what happens when the elected worms give businesses too much.
And before anyone goes nuts, lemme explain that.
Since 1992, the state lowered how much the companies collected for unemployment, because the business people kept whining about how much it was costing them. And this went on with NC businesses and national / international businsses too, even during really booming business times.
But at the same time they collected less for unemployment, the (D)s in control, raised the weekly pay out for jobless people. That too, was a move to make people happy. God forbid that they just clean up the damned system enough for people to have a job, right?
Everything up to and including Heroin should be cheap and legal.
When they start ODing the violance will come down, Niggas start dissapearing and when they do croak we can sell their hair for wigs.
I also propose sort of a a pot lotto thing where every day ten joints per state are given away, one to a person who enters the contest, per state and they all have to smoke it on TV. Catch is one joint is laced with strychnine, and in vegas you bet on which state has a 'croaker' next.
I pick Strych cause it way more graphic and takes longer to croak than cyanide
Any one have a bag of Doritos?
I'm out Cowpill, my goats at them during he Superbowl!
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