Do you thin weed legalization, could be the next internet for our economy?
 

discuss...

I mean think of all the jobs, and money that would be created from products and services aligned with it.

but dont stoop there, look at all the tax revenues for our infastructure, and all the money saved on enforcement would even open the jails back up to keep real criminals.

how do you feel about this issue?

Ain't gonna happen while any of us are alive.

Government is TOO big.

aint gonna happen anytime soon i can tell you that much lol

if the government can find a way to tax, regulate, and profit from its production, it would already be legal. However the network of growers, importers, and suppliers is so well built already, the number of those going legit and paying taxes on sales would be very low.

why do you think the government is so worried about taking down big operations inside the marijuana growing community, if they can do away with enough illegal networks pushing it, then they can subsidize it and rebuild it profitably under their watchful eye.

maybe im just paranoid from smoking too much..:)


oh and if you wanna know where the next big economical boom will come from in the united states, keep an eye out for church and religious organization tax, they have enough influence in major government, somebody will put 2 and 2 together and say hey, if we are passing all these laws based on religious beliefs and morals established by you, then you should pay fucking taxes to support our operations..

I bet many growers would come out to make it work, the only reason it has not so far, is the money being paid to the campaigns by religious, and pharmacutical companies....

not to mention the liquor industry opposses it as well.

legalizing marijuana would destroy this country. it'll never get legalized in my opinion, even if all the potheads actually got organized. Well come to think of it, they already are via the Green party and that is barely afloat.

mmmm chronic

It hasn't destroyed any other countires that decriminalized it. :2 cents:

I don't like drugs, but noone should be locked up for what products they consume.

No victim = No crime

fuck thin weed. i like fat chronic nugz

My family has 200+ acres of the most fertile land in Western NY.

I know what I'll be doing should MJ be legalized. :Graucho

its a wash, the economic benefit would equal the problem it creates.

if and when it happens ill be sittin on easy street :thumbsup

This will not happen because everyone can grow their own personal supply so few people would bother buying it, and hemp products are already available commercially.

What a daft staement. Of course *most* people wouldn;t grow their own if they could buy it. For example how many people grow their own onions and how many pop down the shop and buy them?

Legalisation won't happen in the US for a long, long time if at all. While the majority may either support it or not care too much either way they unfortunately (for the most) part don't feel strongly enough about it for it to alter their voting. However a rather large minority do feel very strongly about it and the net result would be a lot of lost votes. No politician is going to lose votes if he can help it.

It won't happen in the US anytime soon. Maybe Canada though.

I think it will be a while before they legalize marijuana. They make way more money busting people for it than they do if it were legal and they just taxed it.

Marijuana prohibition is unique among American criminal laws. No other law is both enforced so widely and harshly and yet deemed unnecessary by such a substantial portion of the populace.

Police make about 700,000 arrests per year for marijuana offenses. That's almost the same number as are arrested each year for cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy, and all other illicit drugs combined. Roughly 600,000, or 87 percent, of marijuana arrests are for nothing more than possession of small amounts. Millions of Americans have never been arrested or convicted of any criminal offense except this. Enforcing marijuana laws costs an estimated $10-15 billion in direct costs alone.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1188083/posts

California has saved BILLIONS since decriminalization in 1976.

ALSO, California has saved 600 million this past year recently because we did not need to house marijuana offenders who make up a great majority of people in jail.

we dont have to keep people in jail for weed so we dont need the prisons.

http://www.mpp.org/archive/97strat.html

Prop 36 just saved us 250 million

http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/16512/

big difference from turning a blind eye to being able to purchase the stuff at 7-11

The only thing daft here is you. Your example is not a good one, growing pot and onions are very different, as is storing these 2 products. One cannot grow and store their own onion supply for a year in one harvest, you try storing that many onions in your house and see what happens.

On the other hand, one could easily turn their backyard into a high yielding crop to suppy all their friends and aquintances for a year, and storage would not be much of a problem.

The variables to consider are the low price to produce the harvest versus the money that is currently made from the artificial inflation for the price of commercial marijuana. There are plenty official pockets being lined with said revenues that any kind of legal taxation plan would fall way short..

here are the best numbers regarding how much money is WASTED ON ENFORCING MARIJUANA LAWS.

http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3381

60,000 individuals are behind bars for marijuana offenses at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion per year.
REFERENCE: Marijuana Arrests and Incarceration in the United States. 1999. The Federation of American Scientists' Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin.


Taxpayers annually spend between $7.5 billion and $10 billion arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations. Almost 90 percent of these arrests are for marijuana possession only.

The state of California saved nearly $1 billion dollars from 1976 to 1985 by decriminalizing the personal possession of one ounce of marijuana, according to a study of the state justice department budget.

REFERENCE: M. Aldrich and T. Mikuriya. 1988. Savings in California marijuana law enforcement costs attributable to the Moscone Act of 1976. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 20: 75-81.

The products the hemp and all of ist components such as the oil, the pulp, etc... can be used to make a wide variety of things, including fuel for our cars to run off of, and thus we would not be dependent on anyones oil or crude from the ground anymore.

the paper industry could be revolutionized

old growth forest could return

pharmacutical and medical costs could be drastically reduced

all this from a very managebal and sustainable crop.

( excellent mentions on the criminal aspects of the war , fletch)

what problem would it create? cigarettes and alchohol would create far more problems then weed ever will.

Nothing at all would change. The fear of getting caught would be gone for the grower, there would be more competition and hence lower prices, but overall the market would remain what it is today.

thing is if you get people used to drugs they try more like coke, speed, then even herion.

happens loads, alot of old friends i knew moved to herion from just being stoners, it was the main reason i left uk.

My sister went from prescription pills to heroin.

That's the only reason why i love Holland.

Amen