Massachusetts Lawmakers Debating Legalization!

Just sent letters to my reps. One is on the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Revenue which is the committee in the hearing tomorrow. Now I'm just hoping for the best.

 

awesome man, nice job! This is great news!

 

where can we get the best updates/live blog og this? NORML?

 

Hell yeah Massachusetts.

 

Sent letters to my Reps. as well. Not to mention that I sent in letters for H2160 - Medical Marijuana. But that one has sat in committee since May - I heard that the chairwoman of the Public Health committee doesn't 'believe' in MMJ. Hopefully one or both of these bills pass before the legislative session ends!

 

Getting my boxes ready to move....

 

I just read the bill and some aspects of it seem a bit off. First off are the taxes. It's $150 an ounce for less than 5% THC, $200 for 5% THC to 10% THC, and $250 for 10% THC and above. And these prices are just the tax.

Also, growing will require a cultivation license that costs $500 annually and someone with a cultivation license can only sell to someone with a processing license, which costs even more.

This is a lot of money. I personally wouldn't mind paying this if it became legal but I don't see how this could compete with the black market. People would still buy weed underground. This would cause the bill to look bad to the rest of the country. I know beggars can't be choosers but I think this bill will need to be tweaked before it can pass. The worst thing that could happen is that it passes and ends up failing, which would seal the fate of the legalization movement.

 

Said in the bill that the cannabis cannot be rolled into a cigarrete form which sucks. Who has ever dreamed of going to a conviences store and buying a pack of joints.(i know i have)

 

Does that mean even for the middle man? The only legal way for anyone to buy it would be by the ounce at the stores? That's like the only way to buy beer is by the keg. Sounds pretty ridiculous to me. Also, I don't think the taxes are so outrageous. Say for top quality bud, a $250 an ounce tax, the bud itself to grow will cost extremely little, 10, 20 bucks at most? Even for $275 an ounce of amazing weed, it's still better than buying it off the black market.

 

I agree 100%. Anything that takes business away from the black market is a good thing. I'm surprised there isn't more reaction to this. Even on Norml's blog, there's only 38 responses to this.

 

can only buy ounces? hmmm..

 

I'd agree that $275 an ounce would be a fair price for some great weed. But I'm not sure that would be profitable. Production and sale of high quality weed is likely at least $25 an ounce. This includes the costs of growing equipment, labor to care for the plants, shipping, and people to work at the stores. So that is around $275 to cover the cost of the ounce. After profit is added on, an ounce of high quality weed would be around $350. That is $12.50 a gram. In small amounts, that's a fair price but for the whole ounce, that is a bit steep. Don't get me wrong, I would still pay it but I'm not sure others would. Then again, I know plenty of people who pay $20 a gram now so it might not be so high after all.

And also, with the taxes that high, there would likely be a lot of grey market weed. Growers could legally grow weed and then sell it to stores and/or people illegally to avoid the taxes. Unlike alcohol which comes in labeled cans and bottles from large companies, weed would likely be less commercialized and just come in bags. Once the weed would reach the stores, it would be hard to trace it's origins.

This situation would be way better than how it is now without a doubt. But I see potential problems that would come with it. As long as it's regulated correctly, it should be able to work. Things just can't get out of hand.

 

IMHO, if this passes, every other state/commonwealth that has fiscal issues will quickly fall into line and pass similar legislation (I'm looking at you, MI and CA).

 

I disagree. How much does an ounce of lettuce, cabbage, spinach, parsley, basil etc. cost at the store? Even a bag of rolling tobacco comes out to no more than $2-3 an ounce. Why should legal marijuana be any different?

 

i know where im going to school next semester

 

Holy shit there are some steep taxes and licensing fees in there. I really hope they lower those because we don't want to legalize and still have a thriving black market.

 

So it's up for debate... What's the rest of the process this has to go through to become a law?

Just wanna get a ballpark estimation of when (if) it will be passed.

 

I did some digging around the web and I one reason that I heard that would explain the high taxes and fees is that assuming the bill doesn't pass, the figures from it could be used in determining how much the government could make from legalizing. After all, it is unlikely to pass but it does raise serious discussion of legalization in the state and around the country. So if it passes, good. If not, it can be used to calculate how much money the government is missing out in.

And also, having such high taxes makes it slightly more likely to be looked at seriously by the legislature. I mean, if there are 1 million marijuana users in the state and they each go through an average of an ounce a year, that's $250 million right there. That comes out to around $830,000 per town which is enough to hire at least 10 teachers or help fund a public works project. When law makers see it like this, it looks a lot better.

 

Not to mention the income taxes that would be brought in both from the added jobs that the industry itself would create plus the legit jobs that the old dealers would have to get.