Quote:
Originally Posted by robwod
This, absolutely.
The medical marijuana is already more expensive than blackmarket marijuana, and you can bet that there will be a bloated administration (anyone remember the farce of a bloated tax black hole that was the long gun registry here?) to oversee it that will be paid for by marijuana taxes. Then, of course, the "sin taxes" on top of that again, not unlike the crazy taxes on alcohol and tobacco.
Frankly, I can see crime and arrests increasing as a result because the price of gov't run marijuana will be so cost prohibitive that the black market will thrive even more.
That said, it should be outright legal anyway. Legislating a plant is the height of ridiculousness and always has been. You don't need a vendor list, nor an oversight committee, and certainly not legislation. Officially declare it legal and let the free market dictate itself.
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while I agree with your last paragraph, I can't help but disagree with the rest.
When you buy weed, you get what you get, even if your dealer is your good buddy and you helped him grow the plants yourself, you don't know what you are getting, you don't know what the THC level is going to be, you don't know what chemicals were put on it, you don't know if it was shitty and your guy laced it with something else to make it better.
With medical cannabis in Canada (I am sure it is likely similar in other places) you get to leaf through a magazine and read about the different strains, they tell you the effects and side effects of each, the chemical makeup etc. Your almost guaranteed that you will get an untainted product that will have the effects you are seeking, (I say almost because in it's infancy, the industry is having issues with recalls due to pesticide use, but they are getting busted for it, so I am guessing it will only get better). That has value, to me that has a lot of value.
Your good buddy can tell you "hey man this is purple widow maker indie bombshell kush" all he wants, that doesn't mean shit, you might be getting a bag of oregano with a bit of ketamine sprinkled on it.
Canadian households are being given the opportunity to grow their own. It's cost a few dollars for seeds, and unless you hate nature, most people already have everything they need to grow. You might spend $20 on chemicals to increase yield, but that's pretty insignificant. 4 plants might not sound like much, but if you germinate indoors and stay on top of things, I have seen lots of plants yields a QP to a HP over the years, even in our frigid norther climate. For people who don't have that kind of patience, you can grow one mother plant, clone it and pump out 3 producers about every 12 weeks.
Shoppers Drug Mart is pushing hard for the rights to sell marijuana up here and in Ontario there is a good chance the LCBO (liquor stores) will be carrying it as well. These are two places I shop at weekly already.
I think any increases in cost are likely to be worth it when you look at the accompanying increase in quality, reliability, safety, choice and available information; and I think they can be easily offset by the fact that people do not have to be paranoid about growing their own.