BiggerPockets

I always knew the Californians were a little different.

Now I'm sure my little brother will be moving to California as soon as possible

I caught some documentary from one of the cable news channels on the marijuana farming situation in CA. I had not idea the business was as big as it was. Their claim was that for some county, sorry, don't recall which one, it was the major source of income. If the laws were enforced, that county would be completely bankrupted.

Considering that pic is from HI, and in a region were there is allegedly a lot of "alternative farming", its doubly ironic. I almost didn't post in this thread. But, I was astounded by this documentary about how much of this industry there is and how open it is. I'm not surprised CA is trying to tax it.

What does piss me off about one of the arguments the stoner spokesman presented is this idea that resources that were enforcing drug laws can now refocus on enforcing dangerous crime. BS! The resources that were enforcing drug laws now have to reallocated to the much higher costs of enforcing tax revenue compliance on the taxed growers now. And now....since it's an "income" instead of a "crime", won't every trip to the head shop be tax deductible?

Tim- do you have a link to that stoner spokesman... i am assuming that you are referring to Glenn Beck's show?!

Richard- i think you are right on with that. The only thing that tax is going to cover is the overtime that the cops are going to have to put in directing the sheeple because they are too stoned to find their way across the street.

I mean, c'mon... i inhaled in my youth, a lot of us did, i know how stupid this stuff can make you. (case in point: the brownie eating cop & his wife 911 call) It scares the hell out of me to think these people are going to be operating machinery like a car or a SEMI.

What gets me the most is all the money that has been SPENT with tax dollars telling people POT=BAD, now since they have discovered it has a taxable value, its all A-OK.

Look out Amsterdam....Here we come & we are going to make you look like the moral cream of the crop.

You right wing wackos don't know what you're talking about ...

*cough cough*.

Ummm, what was I gonna say? I forgot...

When you work in the remodeling business, you often have to go inside folks homes. As a young adult, I was shocked at the amount and type of people who have little rooms setup in their basements with an ventilation fan and that's where they go and get away from the kids at night to smoke a joint. Then when I became a cop, it seemed like everyone we encountered smoked. We couldn't possibly arrest everyone who had a quarter bag and a bowl on them.
Pot is everywhere. Many of our neighbors, friends, business leaders and even educators smoke it while cowering in their basements.They are forced to buy it from shady people who are always in fear of being arrested or ripped off. Because it's illegal everything about it has become very profitable and dangerous. Just like with any other mind altering substance, it can be abused, but many very normal, successful contributing members of society use it on a regular basis without issues.

Like Ron Paul says, decriminalize it, grow it and lets tax it!

If it does get legalized, imagine the increased production of Doritos and other junk foods! Invest in Frito Lay now! LOL

Enforcing the taxes on it would be tough though, wouldn't it? Aren't dealers going to be pissed? They would have to get a real job!

Yea, dealers would be saying, "I can't compete with wal-mart bro. This is bulls***. They're forcing the mom and pop dealers out."

:D

first, rich hit the nail right on the head. let the idiots sort it out for themselves, if this will cause a migration of stoners to CA (read: away from me) then I'm all for it. I'm no bible-toting conservative and I've tried a lot of things before but the people that smoke weed consistently are just morons. I don't know why everyone argues that it's not bad for you; the evidence is right there! you know that burning you feel in your chest when you inhale the smoke? the coughing it causes you to do? no, you're right, it's not bad for your lungs... give me a friggin break. and everyone I know who smokes consistently slows down and loses a lot of mental sharpness and coherence. I've had bosses, friends, peers, and just about every sort of acquaintance you can imagine who were users (many of them only former users), and they all showed definite signs. christ look at that idiot's face on the fox news program the original poster linked here. nothing says "i smoked myself retarded" quite like that blank stare they develop.

whitney, i live in ny, and frankly papa johns and dominos are way better than the crap you get in a "real pizzeria" in brooklyn or manhattan. sorry, but its true!

so, from a practical standpoint, while i don't encourage this, i think you would get a better product because without having to hide their equipment, growers could really push the envelope with hydroponics and such. space is a big problem when they are trying to hide sodium lights and ebb flow systems in their basements. ever been to epcot in disneyworld? you know the ride where they show you the work they are doing with alternative growing methods and hydroponics? well, imagine that for pot. trust big companies would come up with some phenomenal product. it would blow away the crap that gets smuggled in from mexico and canada, and the stuff that a bunch of idiots with no real qualifications or knowledge of botany are churning out of their grow houses.

check this out for example:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/03/27/2009-03-27_firefighter_sanitation_worker_arraigned_.html

do you really think either of those idiot firefighters should be generating a product that people are going to essentially consume? god knows what kind of garbage they are misguidedly or intentionally putting in as fertilizer...

and, the tax would be heavily outweighed by the increased production and cutting out middlemen (dealers mostly) since the farmers could just sell it themselves directly now that there is no legal risk.

one benefit i can possibly see is that some of the lowlifes that come into this country because they are involved in the drug trade, would perhaps not come if they could not longer make money by smuggling pot here. of course the cocaine and heroin would still flow but a lot of times there is a distinction; people who smuggle/sell pot often don't do other things as well.