If pot is the biggest cash crop, shouldn't it be legal?

So, as a consumer... As a taxpayer... Shouldn't pot be legalized? This could ease the tax burden on millions of americans. Can we honestly argue that the war on drugs is effective and should trump the obvious benefits of legalizing pot?

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I think legalizing EVERY drug would be beneficial to the economy, aka money stops getting poured into south american countries. Also, get rid of competition in society because the divide between users and non users will be huge.

It would also most likely send society spiraling down the drain, but hey, the government makes money... and that's not so different from today.

 

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But look at the numbers. 35 Billion??? seems extraordinary. Taxes alone is mind-boggling. Just a 10% tax would be 3.5 Billion added revenue and you know it wouldn't be that little.

 

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I think it should be left up to the voters to decide. And as far as I know, it's been voted on several times in CA with no change in status.

Or do you think someone else should make those decisions for the people?? That perhaps the voters aren't smart enough to make such decisions?

Baron Max

 

Eaaassssy big fella. I'm asking what you think about the idea. I'm asking you to look from the point of view of a tax payer

 

The price would drop like a rock as soon as its legal, I think

Also I think that It would save alot!!! of money in "the war on drugs"


gerr... my 02cents

 

I was! I was pretending to be a taxpayer and a voter. As you might guess, there's always a different perspective than your own. And to be fair and honest, you can't overlook those other perspectives ...even if you think you're right. Others might not agree.

Baron Max

 

Would you or anyone know the statistics for the numbers/rates of people going from pot to the harder drugs?

As I hear it, that rate is very high ...so some people think that if we stop it at the lowest level, then the addiction to harder, worse drugs will also be curtailed.

Baron Max

 

Which is easier to cultivate: Marijuana or tobacco?

What sort of soils and conditions are needed for each?

 

No idea, PJ.
But marijuana goes for so much, you can make something like 10 to 30 grand a month for growing a 10x10 bed of it in your house, and that's after you've paid off the utilities for leaving full spectrum lighting on all day, fertilizer, and seed.

Granted, most of the value comes from it being illegal and the high transaction costs. What I'd like to see more than pot legalization is the US government stop paying subsidies on hay and corn and other crops.

 

I'm not sure... I know it's hard to keep my pot plant ali....... I mean I've read that keeping a pot plant alive can require constant care.

People do it all the time though. Think about the amount of pot available out there and it is cultivated under the nose of the law.

Are you concerned that perhaps it would replace traditional crops? I do admit some concern over the cost of say, corn, spiraling up because farmers get more money per acre by farming pot. But then maybe processed food would be forced to look elsewhere for it's sources of sugar and filler.

I don't know the answers to those questions but they do strike me as valid concerns.

 

Yeah, right. The price of crops have been plummeting for decades. But powerful agricultural lobbies are keeping American taxpayers paying for crops we could get cheaper from elsewhere (or don't even want) through subsidies and tariffs.

If we moved towards a more free market, stuff would be even cheaper. There are farmers that get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for not growing anything on their fields.

 

Tobacco can be grown near everywhere.


That's why it was a hit back in the colonial days. It could flourish in the rocky unfertile soil of the northeast.



Pot? I wouldn't know anything at all about that. Nothing. Whatsoever.

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pot can also be grown nearly everywhere

i dont have 20 posts so i cant give you any refering links^^ but i know a person that had at least 5 plants, and its very easy

 

The U.S. government likes to put one foot on both sides of the line, and this issue is no different. Tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine are some of the top selling legal drugs. Cannabis wasn't illegal until the 1930s and the days of Harry Anslinger in power. It is an expensive process to keep a drug illegal with such high demand. The government is annually spending millions of dollars on an ineffective campaign not entirely supported by it's taxpayers. The money is thrown blindly at legislation and rehabilitation. Just the other day I was driving through a part of town and I saw an ad at a bus stop bench that read, "METH: IT RUINS LIVES" and had a black and white picture of an unhealthy girl leaning against a wall. Then I turned my head as I drove on.

If they legalized marijuana, the people would have one more damaging substance sold to them. The taxes they impose on it would at least turn a profit, instead of the costly "war on drugs" approach. Then people could truly know the smell of burning pot and the lethargy you get when you smoke it, or how dumb and anxious you feel, not to mention the stimulated senses and philosophical mindset. Objective studies could improve our knowledge of what we know about the plant and the drug. Law enforcement could spend their time dealing with more important situations.

If the opposition against marijuana is so great, where is the public outcry against the abuse of alcohol or tobacco? Why not ban soft drinks, shitty food, and bad medicine? Shouldn't we strive instead for an educated and vigorous population? The fact that we have more soft drinks and junk food in our schools, more drug and alcohol abuse in the teenage population, and such high numbers of drug-related offenses recorded by the judicial system is a sign that the government's policies are not solving the problem. If they want to have a drug-free society, then why are they signing contracts with drug dealers?

 

http://sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=55821&page=4&highlight=marijuana
http://sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=56267&highlight=marijuana
http://sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=56054&highlight=marijuana
http://sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=54212&highlight=marijuana
http://sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=51533&highlight=marijuana

 

There is no use outlawing Cannabis if tobacco, the greater scum, is legal.

Actually, take it back; Cannabis isn't even scum. Only tobacco is.

 

Cannabis still has some of the pollutant chemicals that tobacco has when it's smoked. It's also known that it can cause different reactions in different people, some to the point of suffering psychosis. I'm sure they don't smoke pot for a reason and the last thing they need is an inconsiderate pot head blowing smoke in their direction.

It's not just a health concern but a Mental Health concern. Also the number of pot heads I knew back in the day let their entire lives slide while smoking it, also while smoking it they were ultra-defensive if anyone was to dis their beloved weed. They allowed their addictions to control them more than anything else.

 

And the same holds true for alcohol or any other addiction. For every person with a problem there are thousands without a problem. Just because dude #1 cannot control his intake, does not mean dude #2 should not partake.

I get the feeling your trying to make a point here?

This thread was started in order to get a reaction to the fact pot as a crop is worth more than corn and wheat combined and how that would color your opinion on it's legality. I would be interested to hear yours.

 

it seems people would be beating a path to your door if you sold oxygen seeing that we can't survive without it.
this implies there is more to consider than monetary worth.