Friday, July 23, 2010

Marijuana Plantations OK'd in Oakland



When will we see these in Racine?

9 comments:

kkdither said...

This is almost hard to believe. I remember the "just say no days" too well. I remember the "Reefer Madness" mentality. Aren't there people still in jail on long term sentences for possession of small amounts of marijuana?

I didn't think I'd see this in my lifetime. I thought big money and politics would have continued to block this. It does sound like big money still wants their share, though, and will go after it in other ways....

hale-bopp said...

And I am flying to Oakland Sunday...I will look for the Amber Waves of Marijauna

OrbsCorbs said...

kk, I assumed years ago that pot would be legalized in my lifetime, but have doubted it for a couple of decades now. Just because California is doing it doesn't mean the rest of the country will, but I suspect the lure of the tax money will be difficult to resist. I don't know if it's true, but I've heard a number of times that California's budget problems would disappear with a tax on pot.

OKIE said...

I've heard that as well Orbs. It would also stop some of the drugs coming out of Mexico.
In this day and age, it is ridiculous that it isn't legal. It certainly does a lot less harm than alcohol.
I hope California passes it and I do hope they don't turn to these plantations. Only because it would turn into such big business and the little guy would be out. Another blow to small business owners.

kkdither said...

Hmmm... might open up some interesting Quality Assurance jobs if they allow small growers to contribute to the market.

I wonder what type of resume and references you would need to land one of those positions?

hale-bopp said...

Well, let's do a little math for fun. U.S. Federal budge deficit is about $1.5 trillion this year. California is proposing a $50 per ounce tax. Let's say the Federal government did this. It would have to collect that tax on 30 billion ounces of legally sold marijuana per year to eliminate that deficit. That amounts to every man, woman and child in the country smoking 100 ounces of marijuana per yer.

If you think that is going to happen if marijuana is legalized with a tax of $50 per ounce from the feds (and probably additional state and local taxes) then I have to ask what you are smoking :)

For California, its $19 billion budget deficit divided by its approximately 36 million residents means that each California resident would have to smoke about 105 ounces (curiously close to the national rate) to close its budget gap. Again, I ask what the people who say that are smoking. These are just simple numbers I am running here!

kkdither said...

Another thing not factored in and one of the problem with taxes are, they are never spent the way the original proposal suggests. The money is allocated elsewhere and the real root of the problem continues: that of mismanagement of funds and overspending by government.

OrbsCorbs said...

Hale, I thought every man, woman, and child in California already smokes over 100 ounces of pot a year. :P

The other problem with this is that no matter what the states do, it's still against federal law. There are a lot of vested interests against this.

OrbsCorbs said...

"Patients treated at Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics will be able to use medical marijuana in the 14 states where it's legal, according to new federal guidelines." - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/24/AR2010072401468.html