Washington is among the top five pot-producing states, producing a $1 billion-a-year crop that is second in value only to the state’s famed apple harvest, according to an analysis released this week by a public-policy researcher.
Hmm. If the state legalized and taxed pot at the same rate it taxes non-cigarette tobacco products (75 percent of the retail price,) that would produce about $750 million in revenues a year.
Yeah, yeah… I’m making a lot of bogus assumptions there, but the point is that our embarrassingly ineffective war on drugs has only succeeding in creating a burgeoning black market, costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tax revenues… not to mention the many millions more spent interdicting, prosecuting and jailing pot offenders. This is money that could not only be spent on important public services like health care and education, but also on treatment and prevention programs that couldn’t possibly be any less effective than our existing efforts at interdiction.
There’s absolutely no way to prevent people from growing, selling and consuming pot. It isn’t just climate or an abundance of hippies that makes WA a prime pot-growing region — hell, Tennessee and Kentucky rank second and third respectively, for a combined $9.4 billion crop that makes WA look like a community pea-patch. So if we can’t stop farmers from growing reefer in the heart of the old Confederacy, how are we going to stop it here in the liberal-tarian Northwest?
Of course, we can’t.
Prohibition just doesn’t work, and at least when it comes to the relatively innocuous social harm caused by marijuana — arguably less harmful than alcohol — it just doesn’t make sense. That’s reality. I’m not saying we should encourage or promote our local pot industry, but it’s far past time we legalize, regulate and tax it.
As for those who continue to attempt to make rational arguments in favor of marijuana prohibition, well… I don’t know what they’re smoking.
DISCLAIMER:
I did occasionally smoke pot during college, but no longer do because it now makes me physically uncomfortable. So I have no dog in this fight.
But Goldy, you’re overlooking the fact that pot is an icon of the hate sixties counterculture, which must be suppressed at ALL COSTS, therefore the neofucks will make whatever sacrifices are required to prevent SEDITION by Mary Jane and all her lovers.
“hated” not “hate”
The ex-hippies who now population the Far Right can’t stand to be reminded of their misspent youth, which they squandered in COMMUNES smoking POT and making FREE LOVE (which turned out not to be so free).
Personally, I think Redneck might mellow out and PAY HIS FUCKING GAMBLING DEBT if he let his hair grow and smoked a TOKE now and then, instead of being such a tightass.
COME ON EASTERN WASHINGTON WINGNUTS WHO COMMENT ON (UN)SP!
HOW MUCH POT DO YOU GROW?
HOW MUCH OF YOUR PROFITS DO YOU DONATE TO WINGNUT POLITICIANS?
POT NEVER DID AGREE MUCH WITH ME EITHER. I VALUE A CLEAR MIND AND A HEALTHY BODY. DRUG USE PROMOTES NEITHER. YOUR TIME IS BETTER SPENT IN DOZENS OF OTHER MORE PRODUCTIVE PATHS.
Free love and communes were eliminated by DNA testing and nationwide child support enforcement.
6 For a wingnut, what could be more productive than growing a CASH CROP to make MONEY?! With those folks, everything is about money, money, money!!! Even their womenfolk are thinking of MONEY when they spread their legs — just ask Redneck!!!
(pause)
(snicker)
$500,000.000 FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS
up in crack smoke!!! ha hoo heee haw har
You made BAD CHOICES, Redneck!!!
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
Personally, I don’t see any reason to spend one more dime trying to stop marijuana growth/use.
Truly, the war on pot is long over and done. If we as a society are going to be OK with drinking and smoking cigarrettes, then why not MJ? I say, grow it, sell it, TAX the Heck out of it, and realize the benefits of the $$$. Maybe we could build some roads……
The war on drugs is a major bust. All we have managed to do is imprison more folks than just about any nation on earth at considerable PUBLIC cost (yes, you tax hating wingnuts, that would be you), and distorted the economies of many nations (Afganistan, Mexico).
Yes, wingnuts….choices do indeed have consequences. Perhaps you should own up to some of yours.
But you won’t. Some things never change.
You wonder why Timmy Lieman isn’t all over this one with an initiative! Think of it — if there’s $750 million of actual tax revenues there, Lieman can parlay that into a promise to ELIMINATE PROPERTY TAXES!!! After all, he promised voters only $400,000,000 of tax savings* if they would pass his slot machine initiative.
* Slot machines typically pay out 90%, but let’s assume Timmy’s slot machines would pay 85% (customers pretty much walk away, below that threshold). Then let’s say the state takes 25% of net … so to collect $400 million of taxes, representing 1.5% of total revenues, each of Washington’s 7.1 million residents (including kids and old folks in nursing homes) would have to drop over $4500 a year into slot machines, or about $25,000 a year for a typical family of four. Man, that guy Timmy Lieman tells some tall tales!!!
Timmy’s gambling initiative would have cut the average homeowner’s property tax by $5 to $10 a year. Pot, on the othr hand, could produce enough revenue to provide homeowners with tax cuts in the $200 to $300 range.
Right Stuff @9:
The conservatives in the UK have figured this out and now have a might smarter message on drug policy than Tony Blair and his Labor Party, who are reaching new lows in popularity. If U.S. conservatives can jettison the xenophobes, the religious fanatics, and the neocons and start focusing on fiscal sanity, they may actually be able to celebrate an election victory in the next 10 years in the U.S.
sorry “much” smarter
What “War On Drugs”? It’s yet another Federal corporate welfare program — a $750 million tax subsidy in this state alone, as Goldy shows, and billions to the police unions, the jail guard unions, the construction companies, etc.
Jingle all the way.
So let’s not kid ourselves into thinking this is some “moral” issue. It’s one of the few times amurrican business is actually looking at the bottom line.
Hey Wingnuts & Moonbats –
While you’re on the subject of government and monies collect and spent, here’s something you can all get into:
Yet with all of that money, our leaders seem to have forgotten our military isn’t strong because of our weaponry, our strength lies in our people in uniform. Despite this simple truth, many service men and women cannot afford to call home during the holidays. Every year the United Service Organizations (USO) has to solicit donations so our young men and women may do so. This year is no exception.
So, stop your bickering for a moment and go here to donate a few dollars for much needed and appreciated phone cards. Let someone overseas talk to family at home this weekend.
And now, back to The Itchy & Scratchy Show…
YO LIB BRO (OSAMA) what say you? Now you can run and hide but we will eventually catch you dead or alive. Now YOUR LIBERAL BROTHER (OSAMA) you really don’t like that approach to solve the problem, but we tried your ever since Jimmy Carter and it did not work. Remember Sepetember 11 and you will get a better picture.
http://www.dailymotion.com/vis.....ck-version
KABUL, Afghanistan – A top Taliban military commander described as a close associate of Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar was killed in an air strike this week close to the border with Pakistan, the U.S. military said Saturday. A purported Taliban spokesman denied the claim.
Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Osmani was killed Tuesday by a U.S. air strike while traveling by vehicle in a deserted area in the southern province of Helmand, the U.S. military said. Two associates also were killed, it said.
Osmani, regarded as one of three top associates of Omar, is the highest-ranking Taliban leader that the coalition has claimed to have killed or captured since U.S. forces deployed in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban regime in late 2001 for hosting bin Laden.
There was no immediate confirmation from Afghan officials or visual proof offered to support the American claim. A U.S. spokesman said that “various sources” were used to confirm Osmani’s identity.
http://www.military.com/NewsCo.....85,00.html
klake says:
YOU LIB BRO says:
HOW MANY PEOPLE WE HAVE TO FEED THROUGH THE MEAT GRINDER OVER THERE BEFORE A “DEMOCRACY” MAGICALLY APPEARS?
You Lib Bro you tell me for you have all the brains. Does it take two to engage in a conflict and those folks on the other side are completely defenseless. No? Yes? Let’s start with your name what makes you a liberal brother, or is it a coward, or your shaking with fear? You like a sniper hide in the back ground and snipe with your obscurity. Your momma or daddy did give you a real name or are you ashamed of it ethnic originality Osama bin? Democracy did not take place instantaneously when this country was from after the revolution in 1776. We also had wars after the revolution to settle our differences of option and that was the Civil War. Osama you can see that progress does take time, a lot of pain, greave, and yes lost of lives. Osama Lib Bro you can play a part in that transaction by supporting those folks who are willing to take risks to make that process take place even though you do not understand that process. Your friends have plenty of time to make their input, but nobody bought their plan. Yes most of the Democrats and Republicans voted for the war and now it is the military and the rest of us to win this conflict. Playing like a terrorist sniping defenseless women, children, and terrorism Liberals into surrendering will not win this conflict. So You Lib Bro (Osama) go down to your basement and harvest some of that dry weed and try to get a different look of the world around you. Now don’t Bogart that joint, now share with your friend Roger. Brother you don’t have to shout we can hear you plain and clear. (THE CAPS ARE NOT NESSARY TO MAKE YOUR POINT WE ALL LIKE TO READ YOUR POINT OF VIEW OSAMA).
http://www.dailymotion.com/vis ited/search/iraq/video/xs9bb_s niper
You don’t think he talk?
Senior al-Qaida leader nabbed in Iraq
Published in: 7Online NY December 20, 2006
(Baghdad, Iraq – AP, December 20, 2006) – U.S.-led forces captured a senior al-Qaida leader who was responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths and housed foreign fighters who carried out suicide bombings, the U.S. military said Wednesday.
The leader, who was not identified, was arrested in a raid in Mosul on Dec. 14, the military said in a statement.
“The terrorist leader was attempting to flee from the location when Coalition Forces chased him across a street and detained him,” the statement said.
It said the suspect served as al-Qaida’s military chief in Mosul in 2005, and then took up the same job in western Baghdad.
Source: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/st.....id=4865005
Sorry folks for taking the high off your party. Roger did you inhale?
Former Voter says:
Yet with all of that money, our leaders seem to have forgotten our military isn’t strong because of our weaponry, our strength lies in our people in uniform. Despite this simple truth, many service men and women cannot afford to call home during the holidays. Every year the United Service Organizations (USO) has to solicit donations so our young men and women may do so. This year is no exception.
So, stop you’re bickering for a moment and go here to donate a few dollars for much needed and appreciated phone cards. Let someone overseas talk to family at home this weekend.
And now, back to The Itchy & Scratchy Show…
Mr. Former Voter you should have voted and we might be dealing with a different problem, now that a story for another day. For your own personnel info the Troops do get to call home at your expense but with limited time. The number of soldiers over whelms the info structure to exceed certain time limits. The local networks are more robust to carry large amounts of traffic and are use by the troops. That is the reason for the calling cards and it is expense to talk for extended periods of time. Please support the USO and other organization that support soldier’s moral.
So Goldy only eats pot these days. I see.
I’m all on board with you on this, Goldy. Now perhaps we can elect some libertarians who will actually advocate drug legalization.
My roundup is posted with some more links to this disaster we call the war on drugs.
Both tobacco smoking and marijuana smoking put dangerous levels of carbon monoxide into the bloodstream — as much as 20% of hemoglobin being bonded to carbon monoxide (COHb or carboxyhemoglobin) and made useless to carry oxygen.
COHb levels become lethal in the 40% and higher range. 10% and higher has noticeable symptoms, like headache and fatigue. Might as well be running a generator in your basement. All depends, of course, but even the short term effects of smoking anything are extremely hazardous.
10 “All we have managed to do is imprison more folks than just about any nation on earth …”
I was thinking about this the other day. I suspect our per capita prison population is higher because we’re more civilized. In primitive societies, they handle crime informally at the local level. http://tinyurl.com/y7b8lk
This depresses crime statistics and jail populations, giving us an inaccurate impression of low crime in these societies.
20 No, but I donated $99 to Operation Helmet and $25 to Operation Phone Call. What have YOU done to support the troops, wingfuck? Blowing smoke out of your ass doesn’t count; I’m talking about asking whether you’ve put your money where your mouth is.
25 There’s an awful lot of very lively tobacco and pot smokers running around, Richard.
Of course, Domino’s pizza stock would certainly soar with the legalization of pot, as sales skyrocket!!!!!
Roger Rabbit @ 28
Very true. In most cases, COHb levels of smokers are under 10%. So it doesn’t affect them most of the time. But chain smoke several cigarettes, and COHb will really get up there. Same thing if you are otherwise exposed to environmental CO levels — like working in certain industrial settings or having a CO source in your home.
FLAKEY KLAKE: YOU GOT A PHD IN STUPID.
@26: Roger, our incarceration rates are very much higher than countries with standards of living comparable to ours. One study finds a statistically significant inverse correlation of incarceration rates and levels of social spending:
http://www.crimeandsociety.org.....mbargo.pdf
Your hypothesis may indeed have some relevance, but there are other factors to consider. (Granted, in more “primitive” societies they may tend to handle punishment more informally. However, they simply may not have the economic resources to do otherwise.)
Ain’t life in America great?
Regards,
Goldy remarks,
Washington is among the top five pot-producing states, producing a $1 billion-a-year crop that is second in value only to the state’s famed apple harvest, according to an analysis released this week by a public-policy researcher.
Goldy, Washington is also a liberally controlled state. Funny how it works that it is also one of the nations top producers of illegal drugs.
If we relent on drugs will ya’ll relent on alcohol? that is, allow me to buy a 5th at Safeway? I’m tired of Soviet style 3 varieties of Scotch or Bourbaon; no mas…
Roger Rabbit says:
20 No, but I donated $99 to Operation Helmet and $25 to Operation Phone Call. What have YOU done to support the troops, wingfuck? Blowing smoke out of your ass doesn’t count; I’m talking about asking whether you’ve put your money where your mouth is.
Thanks for your support, but I’m one of those chaps your contribution goes to when I retire from the military. The time I spent in the military is a donation that you cannot give in your advance days of your life. The money is not a requirement to support my fellow soldier’s just acknowledgement for what we do for our country is adequate. As for blowing smoke out my ass well wearing the uniform of the USAF and volunteering to service in South West Asia gives me the right to say anything contrary to your beliefs. Now if you clean up your language and step out of your comfort zone you might get a better understanding of the world around you. Roger when you left Viet Nam you abandoned your country and join an unusual group of people called hate America at all cost. Maybe you should revisit that part in your life and see if you really made the right decision. Just the same thanks for supporting my fellow soldiers and the Unions with Operation Helmet.
33 rob says: Washington is also a liberally controlled state. Funny how it works that it is also one of the nations top producers of illegal drugs.
It’s hard to be as stupid as klake, but you’re giving him a run.
34 Which taxes do you wish to raise to replace the millions of dollars of lost revenue earned by state liquor stores?
Roger@37
If your defense of state owned liquor stores is that earn a nice profit for the state.
a)why not then go full banana replublic and nationalize the drugstores, groceries, etc
b) law school must have omitted econ; greatest good to the society (on things clearly able to be handled by private enterprise) is NOT to have 1 business handling it all. that is, we’d all have more money in our pockets, more choice of what to drink, more people gainfully employed in the liquor business, and then, likely more money for the state to then tax
Of course you all are really socialists. Hint; you could privatize the liquor and increase the tax and consumers would spend the same, but be happier. (ugh, such a commie idea to propose upping that tax, but i’m more focused on the state run businesses… you know how the sugar beet guys did in the USSR))