I was talkin with some buddies the other night that i hoped there was a probable and practical way to legalize marijuana, which i'm sure there is, but how would it's production be monitored and controlled? obviously the gov't would want to tax it. they'll probably want to regulate it's production and limit the amounts available to the public. maybe even limit it's use in public like cigarettes. The questions that bother me the most are the ones having to do with the regulation and taxation... would it be like the cigarettes where they regulate the cost for tax purposes? would they have an increased sales tax on the stuff?? prices might go thru the roof. it'd be all over the stock market... companies pop up out of nowhere to supply it... but with regulation, would that mean that people wouldn't be able to grow? so only the gov't can produce it? effectively limiting the number of strains and making it hard to get anything but what the gov't tells you that you can smoke?? DEA would probably crack down on growing super hard, to keep it all controlled... all these thoughts, idk... i'm just relaying ideas from my head thinking how complicated legalization would be... thoughts/opinions/comments are more than welcome obviously. didnt find a similar post here so i figured that i'd ask
no feedback or thoughts?? some help in answering these questions then?? if there are answers somewhere already then help a brother out, but i cant seem to find the right place for them... maybe i posted in the wrong forum section...
It would immediately become cheaper regardless of the tax. We are paying high black market prices. If it is like tobacco or alcohol, people will be able to grow for personal consumption, and require a permit for sale.
not sure how it would get worked out, but i'd imagine like aaronman said there would be some sort of permit you'd have to purchase to grow for personal use. And you'd probably have to report some sort of sales figures if you sell? maybe you'd only be allowed to sell to a licensed reseller? this way they can get you on tax evasion or something if you sell "black market style". i'm sure they'll find a way to get some revenues out of the deal
my only real comment on this is that the price could fall below the price of ciggarettes. tobbacco is a harder crop to grow and process. after the price fell through the floor the government would tax it back up to probly 15 bucks for a pack of joints or an eighth. marlboro actually already has the patent for marijuana cigarettes, it just needs to be made legal.
I still don't see how it will ever be enforced, they have a hard enough time regulating and taxing tobacco.
yay these were my thoughts exactly... the gov't probably won't make it legal unless they can get significant benefit out of doing so.... hense why i was thinking about the taxation and crop regulation involved... do you think they'll have drug lords starting companies/corperations and monopolizing (not technically possible, but i hope you catch my drift) the weed market?? obviously price would go down yes, but then it could turn into the same small guys growing and selling it locally, as long as uncle sam gets a cut of the sell... i'd imagine it'd be more like taxing the crop than the sales in that case... good thoughts guys, keep it comin
if it went legal, the price would drop low enough that local growers wouldnt do it for profit because it wouldnt be possible to do it cheap enough to make money unless you were growing on a massive scale.
Depends on the quality the mass-producers are selling. If a local grower has higher prices but better bud... As far as not being able to tax personal consumption, its negligible. Alcohol is easier to brew than growing a plant, and the industry gets along just fine with personal brewers. Only connoiseurs will be growing personals. And the government doesn't care about "regulating" use, otherwise they wouldn't have kept it in the blackmarket for so long. Its all about revenues, and though they might see a decline in tax-funded criminalization programs, the gains from tax will be huge.