Why Commercialization and Taxes Are an Important Part of Legalization

Care to show me the data you're drawing those comments from?

I tend to disagree with you on salary comparisons.

Another factor to remember.

The workplace is competitive. If government salaries are too low, they draw ill eqiopped applicants.

A lot of government jobs require a college degree. Particularly white collar positions.

Somebody with a $100,000 in college loans isn't going to accept $15/hr.

JMHO

I feel the same way , about there should be no taxes on it, but I don't see it ever being legal unless there is a tax incentive for our tyrannical oppressors that lord over us.Take Colorado for example where I am, Colorado recently put a stop to caregivers growing for profit and then put a 5 patient limit on each caregiver and says " you can only grow for cost...no profit".

They want the MMJ users to go to the dispensaries and get their "taxed" MMJ , because the dispensaries are easier to regulate and tax than all the Mom n' Pop basement and bedroom grows. The politicians here in Colorado know that the Mom n' Pop caregivers aren't going to pay the state any tax money from their sales to patients , and they also know that if they cap the limit at 5 patients per caregiver that most Mom n' Pop won't try to sell for profit anyway because the money just wouldn't be enough from supplying no more than 5 people. So the caregivers are just shit out of luck.

That puts more patients going back to the "taxed" dispensaries where the state can have that power to check them and their financial records out any day of the week. Even though this is MMJ I'm using as an example , it's still about the taxes. It's going to be the same with legalization concerning recreational use, no state is just going to let a legalization bill through, where the masses can grow limitless amounts and sell it without taxes going to them,and they know that people will be selling it.

I've seen the countless posts where the anti-prop 19 crowd are saying " IT'S MEDICINE AND MEDICINE IS NOT TAXED" .... but in the eyes of most politicians that would be willing to push for recreational legalization... they would see herb as fitting into the "SIN TAX" class. A sin tax is a kind of sumptuary tax: a tax specifically levied on certain generally socially proscribed goods and services. These goods are usually alcohol and tobacco, but also include candies, soft drinks and coffee, while services range from prostitution to gambling.Sumptuary taxes are ostensibly used for reducing transactions involving something that the society considers unwanted, and is thus a kind of sumptuary law. Sin tax is used for taxes on activities that are considered socially undesireable. Common targets of sumptuary taxes are alcohol and tobacco, gambling, and vehicles emitting excessive pollutants. Sumptuary tax on sugar and soft drinks has also been suggested [1]. Some jurisdictions have also levied taxes on illegal drugs such as cocaine and marijuana.

If somehow a legalization bill gets through where the people can vote on it and it does not have any taxes connected to it, you better believe that whatever state it's being voted on in will have their rigged DIEBOLD voting machines and "special vote counting team" to make sure that it doesn't pass.It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes.

Legalization with taxation being involved is the only way legalization is going to happen.The only way to get around having legalization without taxes is an armed revolution with lots of carnage , and that's just not likely in America today with so many laid back sheeple attitudes. We haven't had a major blood fight with the Govt. in 145 years. So , for those who want legalization....accept the taxes to come along with it. Look at it this way, learn how to grow so you won't have to go to the pot store where it will be taxed.

Morning Yall,

I just caught up with this thread and I think that some people here have made good points. Personally, I will admit that I harbor an intense distrust of the govt...at damn near all levels. Every year of my life has been another reiteration of disappointment that the world I live in is a histrionic compromise. One point I would like to make is that the 18-30 year olds that make up this country have the highest levels of unemployment and are the first generation in this nations' history to come into a lower standard of living than that of the previous. This is an apathetic avalanche to the bottom for my generation. We have stopped taking an active part of this union and are paying the heaviest price possible for it - for forfeiture of any chance at a prosperous future. I have heard many of my generation saying how the ones before us have done nothing to change the course of our nation; well I am not seeing anything different from this one. Simply put, if we are to see our state, and our nations' discourse turn in our favor we must become a part of it. Now, I don't want to invoke shades of Mario and Berkeley here, but we have to get more involved in shaping our future by integrating ourselves into "the system."

I mean, how many people here 18-30 actually read and research the propositions on the ballot before voting? I am not just talking about 19, I am talking about ALL of them. Do people even realize that we have businesses sponsoring voter initiatives so that they can re-write tax laws in their favor to the point where they almost literally NEVER have to pay taxes anymore? Or that people are setting up financial institutions based off of carbon trading are sponsoring the levy of higher energy prices on average citizens in the name of "going green?" Simply put we aren't doing ourselves any favors by sitting on our butts.

Take 19 as an example: it started a broad discourse among this demographic. People became interested because for many it was seen as a step in the right direction, others saw differently. Ultimately it wasn’t no-voters like Veggie and I that defeated 19, and by implication the demographic, it was the NON-voters, my peers, that decided to let someone else make the decisions for them. Now in this thread we are seeing some GREAT ideas for the next opportunity. Ones that if incorporated properly will bring victory, no doubt. But we have to make good on our word to stay involved, and to stay a part of the process.

There are WAY more important events happening than legalization, it's time for us to open our eyes, minds, and hearts to the idea that we can start making this place better for us, NOW. I think passing some form of TRUE legalization is a great launching pad (no pun intended) for galvanizing a real movement of progress and reform for the young adults of this state, and country.

I would really like all the 18-30 year olds to absorb this knowledge: We are the first generation in the declining era of power and wealth the USA and we are not even TRYING to make it better for ourselves. Wake up, folks. Party's over.

All three of my kids are flaming Liberals, and between 18 and 30.

I'm very proud of that.

They also vote.

It has a lot to do with how they are brought up.

Socially conscious parents raise socially conscious kids.

There are going to be SERIOUS economic problems in the next two years, if the teabaggers manage to screw up everything, as they've promised.

Too many generations where the stupid and un educated have had more children than the intelligent and well educated.

We are a nation of short sighted, stupid people.

We won't get overrun by Goths, as the Romans were.

It will be the Chinese and Indians that will end up owning us, literally.

The ONLY chance we have of avoiding a massive World wide, economic collapse is for our government to make about ten million good paying jobs, in public works.

Yes this would put us farher in debt, BUT it would give the economy a kick that could increase tax revenues enough to offset, increasing debt, and, after a few years of economic recovery, begin to reduce the debt.

We saw this begin to work under Bill clinton, only for drunken George to come in and blow all the gains in less than a year, and then DOOM us to two protracted wars.

Things are going to shit, very quickly.

And all Obama has done was try to fix it, while swimming upstream against a torrent of negativity by the Republican tea(scum)baggers.

Most of America gets its politics from entertainers.

All least the Liberal ones are funny.

If anyone gets the opportunity, please drop something heavy on Bill O'Reilly. Maybe Rush Limbaugh?

Veggie Man,

I agree and applaud most, but disagree with your take on Obama though...he was a puppet from the get-go, there's absolutely no getting away from that. His team that came together while he was still trying to gain the nomination was nothing short of an epic list of whos-who in the sport of world pillaging. Dont start to make assumptions of my orientation...its not what you maybe thinking at this point.

Either way, and to relate this back to topic, the 18-30 demographic is comatose on the political front. Any initiative in 2012 will have a total uphill battle if this year was any indication of future turn-outs. And older generations, knowing how asleep at the wheel my generation is, will make no hesitations towards exploiting our collective weakness and apathy. Personally, I am tired of feeling like I have no chance at the future I was raised to believe in. I don't want new cars and 300" ultra-thin-infant-blood-plasma-tvs, but a decent career and a home to call my own. But as it stands now, we can't even get enough people to vote (one way or another) on "legalization" for something a majority of my generation does.

I guess all I am trying to say is that yes, the bill-writers have a long way to go, but the community has to show up this time and they are a LONG way off.

I've never had a problem with machine Democrats.

Their goals are mine.

If they had remained the old "tax and spend" Dems, I'd be offended, and vote Green.

Instead, the Republicans have become the "borrow and spend" party, ignoring the consequences.

Obama is a moderate Democrat.

He is as much a Socialist as I am a Republican.

I was a Hillary Clinton supporter, because I believed we needed the very best person for the job, and Bill couldn't run.

Regardless, there is IMO, NOBODY on the Republican side that would have been better than Obama, and very few Democrats. Kucinich(sp), or Joe Biden might have done better. I'm certain Hillary would have pushed her programs through, and put the Republicans where they belong in the public mind(an inch from complete marginalization).

I believe that most of the anti Obama sentiment is purely racism.

There are too damn many people in the World.

If we ignore that fact, the only solution will be a disaster or disasters of such proportions, that the herd is thinned to a reasonable number, like a few hundred million.

Such an occurrence is inevitable within 50 years, unless mankind suddenly changes its nature.

Whatever happens, if it isn't bad enough, we'll have more disasters until it IS enough to stabilize the ecosystem.

Otherwise, we all die.

I'd say it would be wise to stock up on food. As much as you consider reasonable, but no less than enough to last three months.

In a year or two, with a Republican House blocking the White House at every turn, our money may collapse.

Ever read up on runaway inflation in Europe in the first half of the 20th century?

Without gold to back it up, our money amounts to an idea that everyone believes in.

When we stop believing the whole house of cards collapses.

It isn't pretty, but I see no way to avoid it, as long as the opposition shows absolutely no understanding of their own actions.

Stupid people brought down Rome.

We now have our own stupid majority.

Fortunately, they tend to be fat, which will be a bonus when they become our primary source of protein.