one reason officials go after pot growers- its easier than going after hard core traffickers. just like officials going after joe average gun owner, they are easy. pot was legalized here a few years ago and now we have “illegal growing operations run by china here….
Remove the profit, the criminals quit dealing. That leaves the taxation by Government licensed sellers. Remove the taxation, illegal sales are reduced.
Um, remember what happened when the CHOP/CHAZ/whatever crowd decided to grow their own food? That's probably an indicator on what would happen with about half the people who would try to grow their own.
I shudder to think of what the apartment or other rental would be like after they tried it.
If you suck at gardening, you may probably know someone who is really good and would not mind growing it for you. And as long as there is no profit involved, you are legal.
Part of the reason bad policies persist is that the criminals pay the politicians to keep it that way.
That said, you don't have to eliminate profit. You just have to have a free market with modest taxation. The reason legal sellers can't compete in places like NY is that it's too hard to be a legal seller -- too much regulation -- and the taxes on the product are too high. Tax and regulate like tobacco or alcohol and the problem pretty much goes away. People don't buy a whole lot of black market cigarettes, or moonshine, because the economics are not compelling.
One major problem (other than the profit/tax issue) is that there isn't a good way to determine if someone is impaired right now versus someone who smoked over the weekend but is stone-cold sober on Monday morning. Almost every large manufacturing company has mandatory drug testing and until there's a way to accurately measure impairment, this won't go very far.
one reason officials go after pot growers- its easier than going after hard core traffickers. just like officials going after joe average gun owner, they are easy. pot was legalized here a few years ago and now we have “illegal growing operations run by china here….
Remove the profit, the criminals quit dealing. That leaves the taxation by Government licensed sellers. Remove the taxation, illegal sales are reduced.
I've been saying that for 40+ years.
Um, remember what happened when the CHOP/CHAZ/whatever crowd decided to grow their own food? That's probably an indicator on what would happen with about half the people who would try to grow their own.
I shudder to think of what the apartment or other rental would be like after they tried it.
If you suck at gardening, you may probably know someone who is really good and would not mind growing it for you. And as long as there is no profit involved, you are legal.
Part of the reason bad policies persist is that the criminals pay the politicians to keep it that way.
That said, you don't have to eliminate profit. You just have to have a free market with modest taxation. The reason legal sellers can't compete in places like NY is that it's too hard to be a legal seller -- too much regulation -- and the taxes on the product are too high. Tax and regulate like tobacco or alcohol and the problem pretty much goes away. People don't buy a whole lot of black market cigarettes, or moonshine, because the economics are not compelling.
One major problem (other than the profit/tax issue) is that there isn't a good way to determine if someone is impaired right now versus someone who smoked over the weekend but is stone-cold sober on Monday morning. Almost every large manufacturing company has mandatory drug testing and until there's a way to accurately measure impairment, this won't go very far.