Australian Politics Forum - Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol

Baronvonrort

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Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Nov 4^th, 2015 at 1:34pm

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-...

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.

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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol Reply #1 - Nov 4^th, 2015 at 2:52pm I wonder does our sister & friend Marla realise how much tax she's paying.
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Baronvonrort

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #2 - Nov 4^th, 2015 at 4:41pm

"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.

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.

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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol Reply #3 - Nov 5^th, 2015 at 8:26am We tax alcohol heavily and we tax cars heavily. Hasn't helped the war on road carnage though.
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issuevoter Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 9200 The Great State of Mind Gender:	Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol Reply #4 - 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.
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bogarde73

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #5 - 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.

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Muttley Senior Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 483	Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol Reply #6 - Nov 14^th, 2015 at 2:04pm 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.
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Baronvonrort

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #7 - Jan 11^th, 2016 at 11:53am

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?

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Emma

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #8 - Jan 15^th, 2016 at 10:42pm

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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Stratos

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #9 - Jan 15^th, 2016 at 10:53pm

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)

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Pete Waldo wrote on Jan 15^th, 2014 at 11:24pm:

Thus killing those Canaanite babies while they were still innocent, was a particularly merciful act

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Emma

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #10 - Jan 15^th, 2016 at 11:12pm

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

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)

Me either. Sounds like a reasonable proposition to me.

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Emma

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #11 - Jan 15^th, 2016 at 11:17pm

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.

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ian

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #12 - Jan 15^th, 2016 at 11:25pm

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.

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Emma Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 9853 OZ Gender:	Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol Reply #13 - Jan 16^th, 2016 at 10:30pm good question ian. why? buggers me.!
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Sprintcyclist

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Re: Colorado generates more tax from pot than alcohol
Reply #14 - Jan 17^th, 2016 at 12:03am

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

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.

I agree emma

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