There's millions & millions of dollars in potential tax revenues here. The war on drugs is doing nothing but keeping a whole lot of kops off the unemployment lines.

Recognize the potential! (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/17/national/main1326025.shtml)

Better start a marketing plan, cause that's a whole lotta MJ that many would just love to have.

It really surprises me that more folks don't pick up on the apparent significance of the size of the crop, in one state alone.

I believe that it just goes to show how much money is currently made by keeping it ILLEGAL.

Local municipalities, states, etc. all get a piece of the action when someone gets nailed growing it and their house gets seized and auctioned off. Or the cops find a half smoked joint in a nice new car, confiscate it and then that gets auctioned off.

Or the massive payoffs for looking the other way. Look at those sky-marshals that got busted.

I say legalize everything, you can't legislate morality. They tried in the Twenties with alcohol. That is what we have now, modern Prohibition.

if it was legal the price would drop like a stone & the tax revenue would be small. Then one could argue that the lead on to other drugs would increase & cost the state more in crime costs & treatment.

Originally posted by DrewM
if it was legal the price would drop like a stone & the tax revenue would be small.You mean like the tax revenue from alcohol and tobacco is small? Or like the cost of incarcerating non-violent offenders is small?Then one could argue that the lead on to other drugs would increase & cost the state more in crime costs & treatment. People make that argument already. But there's nothing physiologically compelling about marijuana that leads users to experiment with hard drugs. It's the criminal culture that surrounds it's illegality which causes that. And why assume that usage would increase, anyway? Anyone who really wants to smoke marijuana already can.

if it was legal the price would drop like a stone

*****not necessarily ...the costs of producing would still be the same if not higher****

& the tax revenue would be small.

***it could generate as much tax $$ as cigarettes do... but no major corporation has control or can figure out how to gain control...which is why it won't be legalized***

Then one could argue that the lead on to other drugs would increase

***** sorry I can attest to the fact this is a false expectation and a statement which is thrown about which has no merit *****

& cost the state more in crime costs & treatment.

***sorry I don't see that as a potential issue ...IMO if pot were legal we'd have more crime and more people seeking treatment ?is just a silly notion ***

yup the only reason its not legalized is because its a weed. And anyone can grow weeds.

we're not allowed to grow that weed
not even for our own use

legally anyhow

Everything's legal as long as you don't get caught.

I'm not saying the tax benefit would be tiny, it just wouldn't be the windfall obtained if the prices were black market pricing as it is now. It certainly woudn't reach the level of cigarette taxation.

As to follow on to other drugs - this certainly would happen. The usage of cocaine for example would shoot up. Most people who snort coke started by smoking pot. That doesn't of course mean that all pot smokers go on to a coke habit. Most don't.

I support legalizing pot, or decriminalizing it at the very least, but not for reasons of increased taxation.

Look at the financial benefit of taking marijuana off the criminal table. Take all of those folks who are otherwise law abiding, tax paying, employed, voting citizens out of the courtrooms. Let them spend the money earmarked for legal fees on new cars, plasma tv's, hot tubs & whatever else twists their cranks. The only ones suffering would be those employed by the legal system ... break my f**kin heart to know a lawyer was losing money & had to really work ....!

Originally posted by DrewM
As to follow on to other drugs - this certainly would happen. The usage of cocaine for example would shoot up. Most people who snort coke started by smoking pot.Most people who snort coke started by drinking milk. Look, when you have to go to a dealer to get pot, alot of times he or she will have other drugs for sale. And since you're breaking the law anyway, why not give something else a try? That's how most people start using harder drugs. Legalization takes the dealer out of the equation. This effectively reduces the exposure of marijuana buyers to more harmful substances, making their abuse less likely, not more.