(no subject)
Libertarian marijuana legalization advocates have entered the wolf's den if they are embracing the proposed "tax and regulate" model with open arms. Further, there should be no presupposition that so-called "decriminalization" (more below) is the logical antecedent to real legalization. Here's what I think is going on:
1) The drug companies have been planning for what they've seen as an inevitability (relaxation of marijuana laws) for decades, and have successfully fought it tooth and nail until the final plans are made. Their success is indication that pharma lobbyists will be at the head of the table if and when marijuana legislation is modified.
2) Politicians have likewise been mulling about different ideas on how to tax it to oblivion. Though no such task is too daunting for them, it's easy to see how taxing a cheap weed presents a challenge. I also find the timing of these recent media teasers, what with our massive deficit and a realization that only so much blood can be sucked from the rich via income tax in years to come, to be more than coincidental.
The likely outcome is that certain segments of the population (above 21, middle to upper class) will be granted permission to smoke government-approved amounts of grass at government-approved times and locations. Why middle to upper middle class? Because I doubt government-approved grass will come from the neighborhood punk's basement or next to the carrots in Wal-Mart. I think you're going to find it neatly packaged in drug stores at a price point well above a theoretical legalized marijuana price, and somewhat below the current black market price. This completely ignores one of the central arguments against regulation (after all, its current status is nothing more than "hyper-regulation" to the point of prohibition) which is that artificially increased prices breed the violence and theft associated with drugs.
So the politicians and pharma win, and nearly everyone else gets the shaft except those who are content to sit in their basements, watch Family Guy and eat their gerbil food. People are still fined and imprisoned for doing the wrong thing with a plant, whether selling, transporting, holding too much, whatever. The exact nature of the new black/gray market is unknown, but it will be there. Politicians save face and avoid capitulation, never having to admit that they fostered the environment for every drug war crime over the past 80 years. Worse, they slap you in the face by then profiteering from it.
1) The drug companies have been planning for what they've seen as an inevitability (relaxation of marijuana laws) for decades, and have successfully fought it tooth and nail until the final plans are made. Their success is indication that pharma lobbyists will be at the head of the table if and when marijuana legislation is modified.
2) Politicians have likewise been mulling about different ideas on how to tax it to oblivion. Though no such task is too daunting for them, it's easy to see how taxing a cheap weed presents a challenge. I also find the timing of these recent media teasers, what with our massive deficit and a realization that only so much blood can be sucked from the rich via income tax in years to come, to be more than coincidental.
The likely outcome is that certain segments of the population (above 21, middle to upper class) will be granted permission to smoke government-approved amounts of grass at government-approved times and locations. Why middle to upper middle class? Because I doubt government-approved grass will come from the neighborhood punk's basement or next to the carrots in Wal-Mart. I think you're going to find it neatly packaged in drug stores at a price point well above a theoretical legalized marijuana price, and somewhat below the current black market price. This completely ignores one of the central arguments against regulation (after all, its current status is nothing more than "hyper-regulation" to the point of prohibition) which is that artificially increased prices breed the violence and theft associated with drugs.
So the politicians and pharma win, and nearly everyone else gets the shaft except those who are content to sit in their basements, watch Family Guy and eat their gerbil food. People are still fined and imprisoned for doing the wrong thing with a plant, whether selling, transporting, holding too much, whatever. The exact nature of the new black/gray market is unknown, but it will be there. Politicians save face and avoid capitulation, never having to admit that they fostered the environment for every drug war crime over the past 80 years. Worse, they slap you in the face by then profiteering from it.