Originally Posted by palmspringsbum

Well, at present California is considering a $50/oz. tax and some other place (I forgot which right now) is considering a $100/oz. tax.

Also, right here in Compassion Central U.S.A. just a couple of weeks ago was an article about an 85-year-old WWII vet being thrown out in the street for smoking -cigarettes- in her apartment.

Speaking of cigarettes, the goal of course is to tax them out of existence. They intend to raise the tax until no one buys them.

Originally Posted by texascollegestudent

insightful metaphor about The Weakest Link man... that's a very fitting way to put it. however if i may disagree with you slightly - i think the high tax on cigarettes is more designed to deter future smokers since, for the current smoker, the demand for cigarettes is rather inelastic. and of course it's meant to generate revenue.

Originally Posted by palmspringsbum

Not in California it isn't.

Originally Posted by palmspringsbum

Well, at present California is considering a $50/oz. tax and some other place (I forgot which right now) is considering a $100/oz. tax.

Originally Posted by palmspringsbum

Speaking of cigarettes, the goal of course is to tax them out of existence. They intend to raise the tax until no one buys them.

Originally Posted by texascollegestudent

well i just got to thinking and i was wondering how much profit the govt could actually make... so here's a shot.
300 million people x 50 cent tax per joint x .05 (5 percent of ppl smoking weed seems to be a liberal number, but fuck it) x 365 days a year comes out to.... 2.7375 billion. so round that up to 3 billion when considering paraphernalia and such. that's if it's taxed by the joint, which i think is still worth it in my opinion. also assuming that the average person would only smoke once a day.
i dont konw how much revenue could be made off of farmers growing hemp for fiber, but if that would be substantial, which i kind of doubt, then maybe we'd be getting into numbers that would appeal to the govt.

Originally Posted by justatoker

Liquor is legal, but you cant make it at home or its ilegal. IMHO it will be the same with weed even if it does become "legal". I could never understand how the GVT can make it illegal to smoke a plant that grows wild.. A plant that needs no chemical proccess like Coceine/Heroin etc.. Its just damn plant for crying out loud.. Pull it from the groud,Dry it,Smoke it.. THATS IT.. Its basically the same as tobacoo.. Except MJ has medical benefits whereas tobacco kills people and is addictive. IMHO the U.S. is taking away our god given rights by telling us we cannot smoke MJ.