Interesting article which shows Colorado government generates more income from taxing marijuana compared to alcohol, pot generates nearly double the revenue of alcohol.

$70 million raised from cannabis sales taxes compared to $42 million for alcohol taxes.

If we are to consider new taxes how about taxing potheads, instead of the money going into the blackmarket it can benefit society by contributing with taxes, how much do we spend persecuting people for pot every year.
www.thefreethoughtproject.com/colorado-history-bringing-taxes-marijuana-alcohol-time

Here is another article which suggests ending the drug war will cut gun violence, drugs are a multi billion dollar industry with no legal recourse for deals gone bad so violence is used to settle disputes.
www.cato.org/publications/commentary/end-drug-war-cut-gun-violence

I think the Liberal Democrats are the only party saying pot should be legalised and taxed.

I wonder does our sister & friend Marla realise how much tax she's paying.

"If you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel"- Milton Friedman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKhukbe_VkE

The FBI stats for 2014 works out with one American being arrested every 51 seconds for pot, over 80% of these arrests are for possession of small amounts.

The evidence shows the war on drugs has been a costly failure, perhaps it's time to legalise and tax cannabis.

We tax alcohol heavily and we tax cars heavily.
Hasn't helped the war on road carnage though.

I am not convinced that the legalization of drugs like opiates, coke, and cannabis would be without a social cost. To address the unfair imprisonment, I prefer policies that would make possession liable to confiscation, and focus criminality on suppliers, not users.

I'm not convinced either. I think it's just too easy to throw up your hands.
Apart from that, I think a lot of the people who repeat the legalisation line are just self-interested because they want to go on smoking dope & snorting cocaine without fear of apprehension.

Neither do I think though that confiscation is an adequate penalty. I recognise that giving someone a criminal record for smoking a joint is harsh, especially in relation to employment, but there has to be some penalty. Maybe progressively more severe fines for the first 2 or 3 prosecutions and then a conviction is recorded.

bogarde73 wrote on Nov 4^th, 2015 at 2:52pm:

I wonder does our sister & friend Marla realise how much tax she's paying.

I would imagine Marlon is too busy getting high to worry about tax.

issuevoter wrote on Nov 13^th, 2015 at 4:52pm:

I am not convinced that the legalization of drugs like opiates, coke, and cannabis would be without a social cost. To address the unfair imprisonment, I prefer policies that would make possession liable to confiscation, and focus criminality on suppliers, not users.

More people die from eating peanuts than smoking pot, the war on drugs has failed time to tax the potheads.

Portugal had a bad heroin problem before they legalised heroin which reduced their problem.

Prohibition didn't work with alcohol what makes people think it will work with drugs?

I am not surprised to hear of the tax benefit ..not at all.
Just imagine it?? QLD.. and for that matter, the rest of Australia would be DEBT FREE before you could really grasp the folly of the current regime.

It is so obvious I wonder why we haven't moved to bolster OUR coffers, rather than those of criminals and terrorists, a long time ago.
The failure to do so represents incompetence, criminality  and the politics of fear and loathing to me.

It divides our society in so many ways I cannot understand how anyone could logically support prohibition.

Oh and by the way.. alcohol is a drug. Why it is classed in people's minds as something 'else' , when it is clearly  A DRUG, lies with the mass propaganda and hysteria created, primarily, by the US government and it's policy against marijuana.
If truth and public health actually mattered to those creators of this clsterfk it would have never come to this.

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bogarde73 wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 1:46pm:

I recognise that giving someone a criminal record for smoking a joint is harsh, especially in relation to employment, but there has to be some penalty. Maybe progressively more severe fines for the first 2 or 3 prosecutions and then a conviction is recorded.

I see no reason why we can't just treat it like alcohol.  Drink/smoke yourself to oblivion in the privacy of your own home, be held responsible for your actions in public (i.e. starting fights because you're an angry drunk who can't control themselves, or for driving a car while high)

Stratos wrote on Jan 15^th, 2016 at 10:53pm:

bogarde73 wrote on Nov 14th, 2015 at 1:46pm: I recognise that giving someone a criminal record for smoking a joint is harsh, especially in relation to employment, but there has to be some penalty. Maybe progressively more severe fines for the first 2 or 3 prosecutions and then a conviction is recorded. I see no reason why we can't just treat it like alcohol.  Drink/smoke yourself to oblivion in the privacy of your own home, be held responsible for your actions in public (i.e. starting fights because you're an angry drunk who can't control themselves, or for driving a car while high)

Me either. Sounds like a reasonable proposition to me.

bogarde73 wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 1:46pm:

I'm not convinced either. I think it's just too easy to throw up your hands. Apart from that, I think a lot of the people who repeat the legalisation line are just self-interested because they want to go on smoking dope & snorting cocaine without fear of apprehension. Neither do I think though that confiscation is an adequate penalty. I recognise that giving someone a criminal record for smoking a joint is harsh, especially in relation to employment, but there has to be some penalty. Maybe progressively more severe fines for the first 2 or 3 prosecutions and then a conviction is recorded.

See , this is the sort of thinking that really confounds me.  If people found in possession of alcohol were treated this way, you'd never hear the end of it.

It is totally discriminatory, with no basis in science or social experience to suggest this has ever worked.

You have a lot more to fear from drunks, than from Pot smokers.  Please get real.

bogarde73 wrote on Nov 14^th, 2015 at 1:46pm:

I but there has to be some penalty. Maybe progressively more severe fines for the first 2 or 3 prosecutions and then a conviction is recorded.

Why does there have to be a penalty for smoking pot? people have been doing it for thousands of years.. there is zero positive outcome to be achieved by enforcing penalties. look at Marla there over in Colorado, shes happy enough, lives her life in a daze, harming no one.

good question ian.

why?  buggers me.! :( >:(

Emma wrote on Jan 15^th, 2016 at 11:17pm:

bogarde73 wrote on Nov 14th, 2015 at 1:46pm: I'm not convinced either. I think it's just too easy to throw up your hands. Apart from that, I think a lot of the people who repeat the legalisation line are just self-interested because they want to go on smoking dope & snorting cocaine without fear of apprehension. Neither do I think though that confiscation is an adequate penalty. I recognise that giving someone a criminal record for smoking a joint is harsh, especially in relation to employment, but there has to be some penalty. Maybe progressively more severe fines for the first 2 or 3 prosecutions and then a conviction is recorded. See , this is the sort of thinking that really confounds me.  If people found in possession of alcohol were treated this way, you'd never hear the end of it. It is totally discriminatory, with no basis in science or social experience to suggest this has ever worked. You have a lot more to fear from drunks, than from Pot smokers.  Please get real.

I agree emma

Sad that people are prepared to treat their fellows as criminals, because they've been so brainwashed by the propaganda.. ( Smacks of another era.. ::))

I was actually ignorant about the degree to which the US govt was prepared to ostracise and disenfranchise their own citizens for smoking pot.
Not until I heard that Robert Downey Jnr, !! had to be pardoned for his smoking, BEFORE HE COULD be allowed to VOTE.!!  Good grief.!!
I never understood just how deep this bigotry went.!  To be disenfranchised... IE  being denied the right to VOTE  !!!  because you smoked. MY GOODNESS. No wonder so many states in the US are standing up and saying.... this is crap Law.

We will fix it. And have. !!!

Good for them.. but why does Australia have to drag its heels on this .?  I personally can forsee NO NEGATIVES for anyone in our society.
The only people that would suffer would be the crims and the pyscho terrorists who get all that free money, whilst undermining our society.
When will rational thinking prevail.!??

hello again
Have just úpgraded', and need to post.   :P

Too bad Australia is so backward. In too many respects our conservatism is holding us back.

Strange really, when we consider the basis of the white Australia, which constitutes a huge mass of descendants of the unwanted from the British Empire, and then Europe and then Asia.
All those thieves and rebels, and we end up with the likes of Abbott and Costello.. ;D  and their ilk.. ::) being voted into office.

(Happy they are now GONE) :) :) :) :)..but the essential political conservatism of Australian politics remains.

It is really a reflection of the  'inner cringe'  Aussies seem to bear, the vague but persistent inadequacy we feel, which causes us, in turn, to act outrageously, both at home and when o/s.

We have a government which is responsible for massive abuse to innocents and the disadvantaged, both here and in the concentration camps to which  our conservative 'betters' have consigned too too many
innocents.

The sheer horror is hidden from us due to Laws enacted by these, our leaders.!! Absolutely despicable, and I can't imagine the sort of self-interest which our pollies possess to enable such foulness, and still hold up their heads in the world community. It can only be an excess of ego, hubris, and greed.

They'll do anything to stay in power, and they drag us all down to the gutter with them.

It horrifies me that I am a citizen of such a place.

Shame shame.

This Topic was moved here from Drug Policy by freediver.