recreational legalization is coming

dan kone said:

well you can legally grow your own then if that's the case.

Everyone should support legalization. Do it for our people in prison and the ones who will go to prison if we don't get it.

Yes there will be taxes but it's a small price to pay for being a step closer to ending the drug war.

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TWS said:

DENVER - Proposition AA, the measure to set tax rates for the recreational marijuana industry in Colorado, has passed 65 percent to 35 percent.
Voters have approved a 15 percent excise tax on marijuana when it is sold wholesale from a cultivation facility and a 10 percent sales tax on retail marijuana sold to individual consumers.
The taxes are estimated to bring in $70 million a year.
Those taxes are in addition to the existing 2.9 percent state sales tax and does not include any taxes created and approved within a local municipality.
The first $40 million raised by the excise tax each year would be earmarked for public school construction.
Excess money from the excise tax and most of the sales tax money would be dedicated to the regulation and enforcement of the rules created for recreational marijuana in light of Amendment 64's approval by voters last year.
Fifteen percent of the sales tax revenue would be sent to the cities and counties where retail marijuana purchases occur.
Voter approval would also grant the legislature permission to adjust the excise and sales taxes in the future, with the requirement that they both cannot exceed 15 percent.
Sales of recreational marijuana become legal in Colorado on Jan. 1.
Opponents of the taxes argued that marijuana should be taxed like beer, which has a lower tax rate. Supporters, including pot legalization advocates, called the measure an opportunity to show the marijuana industry can be beneficial.http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/prop-aa-the-marijuana-taxation-measure-is-leading-65-percent-to-34-percent-in-early-returns

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• House bill would allow pot in food and lotions
  
  
  LANSING — Medical marijuana users could buy tested and regulated pot from pharmacies under a bill passed Tuesday by the Senate Government Operations Committee.
  Opponents of the bill, however, say it is nothing more than an attempt to take business away from the small-scale and home growers.
  “The voters decided that medical marijuana was a good thing for the state of Michigan, but unfortunately, very few parameters were put around that,” said Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, a supporter of the bill. “For me, it’s about the illegitimate use and the potential for not only a bad product, but it also getting into the hands of people who are underage.”
  Former Speaker of the House Chuck Perricone, who now represents Prairie Plant Systems, a licensed Canadian marijuana manufacturer, said the legislation would give medical marijuana users a better option for their cannabis.
  “This is nothing more than an option or a choice. This product was marketed to the public as medical; let’s make it medical,” he said. “The market for this is virtually untapped. The potential for the product is tremendous.”
  Several dozen activists attending the committee meeting Tuesday said they feared the bill was a money grab by large-scale growers and pharmacies that want to muscle out home growers.
  “We need to grow our own medicine,” said Charmie Gholson, founder of Michigan Moms United, which fights for legal protections for medical marijuana users. “I’m not sure why a Canadian corporation can come in and try to buy our Legislature.”
  The bill would: amend the public health code and classify marijuana as a Schedule 2 controlled substance; provide for the licensure and regulation of facilities to grow and test pharmaceutical-grade pot, and allow those facilities to sell the drug to pharmacies to dispense.
  Medical marijuana users would have to get an additional, enhanced certificate from a doctor to be able to buy the drug from a pharmacy. The bill also would restrict the sale of pharmaceutical-grade cannabis to 2 ounces per month, per customer who is at least 18 years old.
  The option is needed for medical marijuana users, said state Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw Township, to ensure a safe product free of toxins.
  “Marijuana, if it’s to be medical marijuana, should be held to the standard of medical safety and dosage predictability,” he said. “The mold issue is serious, the pesticide issue is serious. Both of those have the potential to be lethal.”
  Kahn said the bill would not stop homegrown marijuana by either cardholders or caregivers.
  “But I don’t think that would be a good choice,” he said. “The best choice would be to get something that is safe and predictable.”
  Rick Thompson of Americans for Safe Access said the issue of product quality isn’t real.
  “Unregulated cannabis has never killed anyone. There are no illnesses,” he said. “Those issues are smoke screens.”
  The legislation, which passed on a 3-0 vote in committee, is contingent upon the federal government reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule 2 controlled substance, which would give it medical legitimacy and would allow pharmacies to dispense it. Marijuana is now a Schedule 1 controlled substance, which the federal government still considers an illegal substance with no medical benefit.
  Perricone said the federal government has taken a number of steps to broaden the availability of marijuana, from signaling that it won’t prosecute in states that have approved medical or recreational marijuana use to allowing for broader access to financing for marijuana businesses.
  But Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, said she was uncomfortable supporting a bill that has to wait for congressional approval. She passed on voting on the bill, which now moves to the full Senate, where it is likely to be brought up for a vote later this week.
  “It’s an unusual step for the Legislature to act in case something that may or may not happen in the federal government,” she said. “The attorney general’s discretion is something very different from congressional approval.” http://www.freep.com/article/20131105/NEWS06/311050133/Buy-medical-marijuana-your-pharmacy-Michigan-Senate-panel-OKs-measure

adower said:

Am I the only one that is against the legalization? I've been reading a ton of articles and trying to follow the Colorado movement. They've been saying taxes up to 51% on marijuana. Why would anyone want that?

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