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buddawigg... buddawigg...
 
M$1 July 16, 2009 01:17 PM

Would California be able to pass a bill legalizing Marijuana?

The State Board of Equalization reports a $50.00 per ounce retail tax would generate $990 million form that tax alone and an additional $392 million in sales tax.
Do the risks out weigh the reward?
What percentage rate of tax is $50 per ounce at the current per ounce cost?
Is that a fair rate?
Yahoo News Article
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Interesting: sysaaron, sunshine09, badaspie

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badaspie badaspie
 
 July 20, 2009 10:33 AM
The odds of this bill (AB 390) passing are good. There are strong Democratic majorities in both houses of the state legislature, and a recent statewide poll showed 56% support for legalization and taxation of marijuana.

The risks of legalization are low. Marijuana is far less lethal than alcohol. For a discussion of the lethality of pot, see this recent Mahalo Answers question:

http://www.mahalo.com/answers/drugs/can-you-find-me-one-death-directly-attributed-to-marijuana-smoking

The crime associated with illegal drugs is mainly due to their illegality, not their effect on behavior. That "noble experiment," Prohibition, and the upsurge in organized crime that resulted, support this contention. As for those effects on behavior, I wish I could find a link to an often-repeated quote from a police officer regarding crowd control at a Grateful Dead show; the cop said that he's rather work ten Dead shows full of stoners than one college football game full of drunks.

I addressed the fairness of the proposed tax rate in a comment to another answer here. In summary, with premium California pot currently selling for hundreds of dollars an ounce and a decrease in risk associated with legalization, the tax does not seem excessive.
Source(s):
http://ballotpedia.org/wiki/index.php/California_State_Legislature#Current_...
http://www.examiner.com/x-4106-California-Statehouse-Examiner~y2009m5d4-Pol...



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samid samid
 
July 16, 2009 02:36 PM
Well, let's see. At the current rate, a person can get decent dirt weed (slang for regular weed, not hydroponic really heavy duty stuff) at about $50 to $60 per ounce. So, selling it with a $50 tax on top of that would be ridiculous in this sense. However, the reason it is so expensive is because the buyer is paying for the risk involved with growing it, transporting it, and distributing it. So, really the current cost is not relevant. One plant, supposedly, produces an ounce. I've heard one plant produces more, but according to police if they find a single seed on your person, they consider it an ounce of marijuana. Marijuana, like most plants, take about three months to mature and produce, which is the same as most veggies. If it were legal and not taxed (no risk involved), I believe an ounce would be approximately the same price as a nice big bag of potatoes, which is about $5. So, if they legalized it and taxed it, they probably could get $50 per ounce in taxes and the user would not see much of an increase in the cost of their weed.

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badaspie badaspie
 
July 20, 2009 09:58 AM
The domestic California marijuana crop is mostly of very high quality and sells for far more than $50 per ounce, so on a percentage basis the proposed tax would be even less of a burden on the user. Growing and especially harvesting premium pot is more labor-intensive than for "dirt weed," so the fixed costs (after eliminating the risk premium) would be higher as well, again reducing the relative impact of a per-ounce tax.

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snowplusbr... snowplusbr...
 
July 16, 2009 03:03 PM
With a possible 1.4 billion dollars in revenue for the state.... they should really think about it!
Source(s):
http://blogs.ocweekly.com/navelgazing/a-clockwork-orange/taxing-pot-would-g...


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samid samid
 
July 16, 2009 05:54 PM
You are right and it really is a no-brainer considering why it was made illegal in the first place. William Randolf Hurst began printing articles in his newspapers demonizing pot because he was afraid the hemp industry would overtake his wood pulp industry. Ironically, the pharmaceutical industry jumped on the bandwagon. One association, however, that did jump on the "let's make pot illegal" bandwagon was the American Medical Association.

Ironically the declaration of independence is written on hemp paper and most of our founding fathers were smokers of hemp. These days, hemp is the term used for the plant that does NOT produce a high; the type used solely for it's very strong fibers. In 2005, narcotics officers destroyed 219 million hemp plants.

For a really good article about this very topic, the article from which the majority of my info above came from, see the newest edition of Mother Jones magazine.

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samid samid
 
July 16, 2009 05:57 PM
For some reason, my edit button below isn't working.

CORRECTION: The one association that did NOT jump on the "let's make pot illegal" bandwagon was the American Medical Association. Sorry guys, somehow the "not" didn't get typed in there.

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sunshine09 sunshine09
 
July 20, 2009 12:21 AM
Oh I so agree !! Michigan is the same we are so far in dept and so many people being forced out of Genesee County it is unreal that they can not or will not come up for a better plan of legalizing it. Sometimes I just do not understand our Government !! Especially now that they are giving it to so many people anyways for health reason. What a huge savings the Govenment could have and be so far ahead of the game had they known that the health officials proably would have purchased the Zillions of pounds of weed that was BURNT by them.

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abe abe
 
July 16, 2009 06:10 PM
I thought state law made it legal, but national laws classify it as illegal?

If so, then it depends on who has jurisdiction on the proceedings.
County cops would have no rights to react, but the feds will go nuts and "seize" (destroy) everything.

Either way, the government seem to be missing a HUGE potential revenue source which seems antiquated to keep archaic laws, which are no longer applicable.

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