The AMT Marijuana Thread

Kat said:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/congress-members-push-feds-to-stop-messing-with-legal-weed-w477883

Good stuff. I have been seeing a lot more noise coming from congress, and am hopeful that we'll see meaningful reforms in the next couple of years, Trump notwithstanding. I don't think he even cares on way or the other. Only that hillbilly Sessions, perhaps the head of DHS, and a few Bible thumpers in Congress make noise about the evils of MJ. The majority of the country is ready to have some sanity applied to Marijuana laws. Prohibition didn't work for alcohol, and isn't working for MJ. It is time for a change in the laws.

oftenreading said:

Interesting article on taxation issues related to legalization of marijuana. Whether and how much to tax, weighing what level of taxation would keep people using the illegal supply chain rather than legal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dan-sutton/marijuana-tax-canada_b_16436462.html

One thing that stuck out for me - "By year end 2015, Colorado had collected more taxes from cannabis consumption than alcohol sales".  That's astounding.

It is astounding, and encouraging. Because states are now reaping the benefits of legalization in a big way, there is no way they are going to roll over if Trump/Sessions want to try to enforce federal MJ laws. This just shows that prohibition has never worked. There has always been demand, and states can choose to continue the unwinnable war on drugs and continue spending senselessly in an attempt to quell that demand, or they can embrace the will of the people and reap financial reward. 

tbergs said:

jeffbr said:

oftenreading said:

Interesting article on taxation issues related to legalization of marijuana. Whether and how much to tax, weighing what level of taxation would keep people using the illegal supply chain rather than legal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/dan-sutton/marijuana-tax-canada_b_16436462.html

One thing that stuck out for me - "By year end 2015, Colorado had collected more taxes from cannabis consumption than alcohol sales".  That's astounding.

It is astounding, and encouraging. Because states are now reaping the benefits of legalization in a big way, there is no way they are going to roll over if Trump/Sessions want to try to enforce federal MJ laws. This just shows that prohibition has never worked. There has always been demand, and states can choose to continue the unwinnable war on drugs and continue spending senselessly in an attempt to quell that demand, or they can embrace the will of the people and reap financial reward. 

Are you referring to all drugs or just marijuana? I hope we never go beyond marijuana legalization. I would also argue that embracing the will of the people should be carefully assessed. After all, Donald Trump was the will of 60 million people. The people don't always make the best decisions.

For now I'm just focused on MJ, although I'm happy to make a case for legalizing (or at the very least decriminalizing) and regulating all drugs, and spend that "war on drugs" money on better education, prevention, and treatment rather than militarized police, the DEA, and private prisons. But that clutters the discussion and I'd prefer to leave that to a different thread. Sessions' hard on about federal MJ enforcement is tiring, and I really don't have much fear of him being able to reverse any current trends on that front. I understand your point about the will of the people, but MJ legalization is a decades old, non-partisan movement based on reason and common sense. It is only political because some politicians (and religious morality police) try to make it so. And ultimately, regardless of what we think about Trump's election, the will of the people had better be taken into consideration in this country. If the will of the people violates the constitution, then either amend the constitution or ignore the will of the people. If the will of the people involves violating minority civil rights, then the will of the people should absolutely be ignored. But for the most part, the will of the people should be considered in every single thing the peoples' representatives in DC work on.