Legalizing Drugs Might Be A Boon To Illegal Drug Dealing

[leibowde84]

It has just recently come to my knowledge that there is a massive epidemic of drug use in Punjab (a state in India), where some studies show that upto 70% of the youth are addicted to hard drugs. The smuggling has been massively facilitated by Pakistan.

I used to be pro legalization of all drugs, but now I have changed my mind. Drugs will destroy a society, no matter how much we try to legalize and control it. Especially hard drugs.

Keeping it illegal only makes the problem worse. Drugs have and will always be a part of society.

How do you buy seeds?

Seed shares, at least in DC. They had one last weekend where you could go in with a DC license and get seeds in exchange for donations to various charities. then you grow it at your house/apartment. Remember, it's a weed, so it really is not that hard to grow.

 

[leibowde84]

Is growing one's own legal? I'd be surprised if the feds would allow that because there's no tax revenue from it.

Yep. In DC it sure is. You can have 6 plants, 2 that are mature at a time. Tons of people are opening growing here now, and the Feds are right around the corner. On Federal land, it is still highly illegal though.

 

[leibowde84]

They're switching to opium
Losing marijuana business, Mexican cartels push heroin and meth - The Washington Post
The amount of cannabis seized by U.S. federal, state and local officers along the boundary with Mexico has fallen 37 percent since 2011, a period during which American marijuana consumers have increasingly turned to the more potent, higher-grade domestic varieties cultivated under legal and quasi-legal protections in more than two dozen U.S. states.

Made-in-the-USA marijuana is quickly displacing the cheap, seedy, hard-packed version harvested by the bushel in Mexico’s Sierra Madre mountains. That has prompted Mexican drug farmers to plant more opium poppies, and the sticky brown and black “tar” heroin they produce is channeled by traffickers into the U.S. communities hit hardest by prescription painkiller abuse, offering addicts a $10 alternative to $80-a-pill oxycodone.

This means that the cartels are losing money. They wouldn't change things up in any way if there wasn't a financial problem.

 

[Monk Of Reason]

If we reduced the taxes on marijuana to something reasonable along with full legalization it would crash the illegal market. It would also crash the hard drug mexican smuggling market as well.

 

[Revoltingest]

If we reduced the taxes on marijuana to something reasonable along with full legalization it would crash the illegal market. It would also crash the hard drug mexican smuggling market as well.

How could something so rational ever be adopted by government though?

 

[Monk Of Reason]

How could something so rational ever be adopted by government though?

We start by legalizing marijuana for congress and make it mandatory they use it during every session.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

We start by legalizing marijuana for congress and make it mandatory they use it during every session.

I think they need mushrooms.

 

[philbo]

Keeping it illegal only makes the problem worse.

^this

 

[Monk Of Reason]

I think they need mushrooms.

While what they come up with while on shrooms would still probably be better than what they come up with now I still think that a hit would be all they need.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

While what they come up with while on shrooms would still probably be better than what they come up with now I still think that a hit would be all they need.

Mushrooms would make them chill out more. So would weed, but weed wouldn't provide for that "doors open" perspective they need.

 

[Thief]

Mushrooms would make them chill out more. So would weed, but weed wouldn't provide for that "doors open" perspective they need.

for the unsuspecting.....mushrooms are poisonous after the first trial.
You need to abstain a full month after only two samples.
be so very careful.

 

[Aquitaine]

Either way, drugs are to be boycotted out of use. There is no real substitute.

How's that gonna happen when so many people are essentially dependant on them?
There will always be people using drugs as a means of temporary escape.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

While what they come up with while on shrooms would still probably be better than what they come up with now I still think that a hit would be all they need.

It's hard to explain, but I think they would probably come up with better legislation a few hours after eating some shrooms. They could come in to it with an uplifted feeling while having a mostly mellow demeanor, brain activity that I guess would be comparable to "overclocking" the brain, I think it would be productive. But, at least in the minimum, there'd be less fist pounding, books slamming, and gavel banging going on.

 

[Penumbra]

WASHINGTON: Tax Day is source of unhappiness for marijuana industry | Economy | McClatchy DC

Legalization will lessen the stigma of recreational drug use, perhaps increasing demand.
But federal tax policy will give illegal dealers a great price advantage over legal businesses,
who must pay income tax on gross income (no business deductions allowed).

Couldn't that argument apply to any product?

People who try to commit tax fraud and avoid taxes have an advantage over legal businesses except for the whole part about being illegal and all the risks associated with that. This can apply to literally any product but particularly on products with excise taxes like alcohol, cigarettes, and gasoline. I don't see how marijuana would be any different than those- if legalized broadly, the bulk of marijuana sales would be above ground and then a smaller amount might remain underground to avoid taxes.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Couldn't that argument apply to any product?

People who try to commit tax fraud and avoid taxes have an advantage over legal businesses except for the whole part about being illegal and all the risks associated with that. This can apply to literally any product but particularly on products with excise taxes like alcohol, cigarettes, and gasoline. I don't see how marijuana would be any different than those- if legalized broadly, the bulk of marijuana sales would be above ground and then a smaller amount might remain underground to avoid taxes.

Also, if there was widespread legalization, the cheap stuff could be grown here by farmers in their fields instead of in Mexico by cartel farmers.

 

[Revoltingest]

Couldn't that argument apply to any product?

Yes. But marijuana manufacture & sales is unique in that business expenses aren't tax deductable. Adding income tax to their costs makes them much more expensive than illegal competition (ignoring costs unique to criminal enterprises).

 

[4consideration]

Yes. But marijuana manufacture & sales is unique in that business expenses aren't tax deductable. Adding income tax to their costs makes them much more expensive than illegal competition (ignoring costs unique to criminal enterprises).

As a taxpaying enterprise, they would have the benefit of police protection in the same way any other business would. They might still need their own security, like any other large enterprise, but they would not have to refrain from calling on the police when threatened if they are not engaged in an illegal enterprise.

edit: I don't know how the process currently works. Are you saying that producers of it in places where it's legal to do so can't deduct business expenses like other businesses?

 

[Revoltingest]

As a taxpaying enterprise, they would have the benefit of police protection in the same way any other business would. They might still need their own security, like any other large enterprise, but they would not have to refrain from calling on the police when threatened if they are not engaged in an illegal enterprise.

edit: I don't know how the process currently works. Are you saying that producers of it in places where it's legal to do so can't deduct business expenses like other businesses?

Can you imagine a retail business which pays income tax on gross sales instead of net?
Holy cow! I experience a little of that in real estate investment (when expenses must be
capitalized & depreciated over 39 years). It's brutal.

 

[4consideration]

Can you imagine a retail business which pays income tax on gross sales instead of net?
Holy cow! I experience a little of that in real estate investment (when expenses must be
capitalized & depreciated over 39 years). It's brutal.

No. I can't imagine.

Are you confirming that growers cannot deduct actual expenses? That seems so bizarre to me. Do you know what the reasoning behind it is?

(edit: My bad. I didn't read the article in the OP. Doing that now.)

 

[Revoltingest]

No. I can't imagine.
Are you confirming that growers cannot deduct actual expenses? That seems so bizarre to me. Do you know what the reasoning behind it is?
(edit: My bad. I didn't read the article in the OP. Doing that now.)

I presume it's one power the fed (IRS) holds over the states who legalize MJ.
The feds want to continue the war on drugs.