Could Legalization Help The US Debt Issue?

I dont think the revenue would be as much as the savings of the cost of incarceration or court system money. I do not think it would be more then a bottle of wine would be. I bet there would be 2 buck chuck bags too. The tax to be fair, should be just like any other taxable item in the store. So when the 100,000 lbs a month are sold the state makes its 7.75% plus some horseshit tax to enforce other drug enforcements till they realize that too is futile. In my dreamy world.

according to my earlier speculative numbers, you are correct - there is more money saved than earned, but those tax dollars do end up in good places if regulated properly by local agencies. i would imagine that the tax will start out high - more than wine - but, it will come down as cannabis becomes a more and more widely accepted product and not scorned by individuals who would say that it deserves a higher tax. i can accept that - so long as the retail price never mirrors the black market, street value. i see that as a major concern that people do not address with medical pot - we need to take the inflated value away from pot before we can have a legitimate trade, not plagued by street hustlers and south american supply chains.

i do not like it that pot shops have the same prices as the street dealers - this assures that they will buy from illicit suppliers, make money under the table with recreational users, and force some patients back to their neighborhood crack dealer for their medication. pot needs to have a proper value in proportion with it's production cost. i also do not like that, though pot is an accepted medicine, it cannot be procured through normal medical channels ever. if it were then there would be real regulation of production and fair price.

my main solution at this point i think is to let medical providers grow as much as they need and not rely on individuals to sell to them. then we will see what i consider a legitimate trade that can start to be taxed, etc. it is easy to stick a giant flat tax on an item if it already has huge inflated value. but, not when pot is worth only what it costs to produce and deliver.

Phillip Morris the big wig for tobacco has already purchased land and is waiting for it to become total legal so he can get his greedy hands in the pot...... literally..

Regardless of whether it would help or not. I don't see it happening untill someone comes up with some kind of scale and some kind of non-invasive on the spot test. Untill a cop can tell your high is under ".08" it's never gonna happen

i think that maybe you shouldn't be allowed to drive stoned at all - then it is a positive or negative test - if you are driving so erratically that the cops need to pull you over and ask if you are intoxicated then there is a problem regardless if you smoked 1 hour ago or 15 minutes.. i don't know - there is no blood cannabinoid level test.. maybe if the feds let us study pot in science labs then we would already have these kind of things settled...

I agree but I still have friends come over and have a beer or two and decide that they are fine to drive home. Common sense doesn't apply to everyone

if someone has been smoking grass and they are driving i have moderate consideration and i watch the road with them - but, if a driver has had a beer or two then i become a bit uncomfortable - there are deaths every day and every night due to drunk driving, but i dare you to dig up even 1 fatality per week that can be attributed to stoned driving - if those numbers were anything like even accidents due to cough medicine then the anti weed people would already be all over it, but i have not heard any statistic that says people so much as stub their toe more often if stoned.. i don't own a car, so i may have a bit of a different perspective.. i just think that unless you are pulled over totally by random then you are spacing out and the cops can tell - at that point then you are in trouble regardless if weed is legal or not.. i do not want it to come to some kind of invasive road side test every time someone is accused of driving stoned.. there should be some leeway - maybe you have to wait 30 - 60 minutes - therefore, you cannot be toking up while driving - that is across the line - just like you can drive while under the influence of codeine, DXM, small amount of alcohol.. common sense rules the day in my opinion - when pot becomes legal we will get the system of regulation down to a comfortable day to day affair and we won't need to waste vast amounts of money regulating something that is not very dangerous..

more to the point, i think that driving drunk is a much more serious issue since we know that it kills people regularly..

i don't know if i would smoke Phillip Morris brand weed or any mass manufacturer - buying local from individuals in the know will always be the best smoke i think.. i can imagine the ground up, stemy, dirt brown, mexican, incestual half breed, urine soaked, pesticide ridden, disgusting-ass-shit that they would produce.. lol.. i would try it for a lark..

one simple answer .. YES...

i heard that the group formed to cut out programs from the budget are all republicans so they will keep pot busts.. that is my theory - we all know that not lowering soldiers down from helicopters carrying sniper rifles and machine guns, night vision and riot gear to violently attack our own citizens is cheaper than going ahead and dong it thousands of times, but that is irrelevant since morals trump money and lives and pot is a dangerous narcotic - more serious than PCP or inject-able methamphetamine - they are only Schedule II..

It would help our debt to legalize Marijuana if it were properly harnested and not being the target for unecessary profiteering by corporations as the tobacco company's have done,they have only helped to demonize there own products by pushing them down our throats so to speek,and look at the backlash from the years of non resistant markaeting tactics they have provocated,from the health effects being advertised to the subliminal/suggestive advertisements seen everywhere,this must not happen when Marijuana becomes legal,it must be more of a person to person marketing as it already is,just without the illegalization,then let some of the markets in on the profits by going to big company's and becoming sales brokers for the dispensaries.Dispensaries owned by the government with proper mandates to allow the proceeds to go into eradicating our national financial deficit..........but time can only tell ,and i personaly dont see this coming to fruition, sad to say.

i have even heard that tobacco by itself does not give you cancer - it is the way in which it is mass produced where radioactive chemicals are regularly sprayed and build up on the leaves giving us radioactive poison to smoke.. they won't stop doing it that way either because it makes them money...

I do believe that this uprising is going to cause a blooming industry of jobs and save the economy a bit..Rather interesting to say the least..

hell yea it would it would save HUNDREDS of billions and make billions.

in the end - if humanity survives - we are talking about saving infinite money and earning infinite profit rather than the other way around..

what if weed takes off when legalized? i would rather see everyone smoking a joint than 4,000,000 alcoholics bound for an early, painful and expensive grave.. so, then the equation would be hiring soldiers to police every single citizen.. isn't that the logical way? then we could spend every penny that we ever earn so that no one is happy...

oh - to back up my point - people who smoke pot also drink less alcohol - i am not saying none - but, i read yesterday that when NORML comes to down, the venue beer sales drop by 50 - 75%..

I stand strongly behind the fact that if we decriminalize marijuana the government will see a
sharp curve in our budget. We no longer will be wasting the billions of dollars on putting people
in prison for minor marijuana offenses. Also most criminal activity that is linked to marijuana is
due to the fact that it is illegal and the business has to be done on the street corner or in a dark
alley with many shady people. If the government would decriminalize it and make it possible
to be bought or grown without punishment, crimes would stop and the revenue the government would
see from the sales would be enough to turn this country around. Taxing every sale may be a little too much
but people who deal could be seen as entrepenurs (spelling?) and just file their taxes just like an other
person who ran their own business. Punish people for injecting bath salts and cooking poison and leave
the people who do natural things alone.