cannabisnews.com: America’s Market for MJ Will Be Far from Free
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America’s Market for MJ Will Be Far from Free
Posted by CN Staff on March 07, 2013 at 11:56:55 PT
Editorial
Source: Economist
U.K. -- Free-The-Weed campaigners speak not of “legalising” marijuana but of “taxing and regulating” it. True to their word, the ballot measure they placed before Colorado’s voters last November, which won the support of 55% of them, was called the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act and contained provisions for a 15% excise tax. Now that the law is taking shape, the signs are that one of the world’s first fully legal marijuana markets (Washington state also backed legalisation) will have all the taxes and rules anyone could have wished for. Soon after Colorado’s law was passed John Hickenlooper, the governor, appointed a task-force to produce a set of proposals for its implementation. The 24-member group concluded its hearings on February 28th and will formally issue its findings to lawmakers next week. A bill should be passed by early May.
In what its co-chair, Jack Finlaw, calls “a crazy couple of months”, the task-force rattled through dozens of issues. Many of its ideas are straightforward enough: rules on labelling, restrictions on advertising and provisions to protect youngsters. Non-residents should be allowed to buy weed, though in smaller amounts than locals. Joe Megyesy, a pro-legalisation lobbyist, calls the proposals “thoughtful and responsible”. But they add up to a far more restrictive market than exists for alcohol. Most importantly, the group wants to maintain, for three years, the “vertical integration” model that has governed Colorado’s medical-marijuana industry. Under this system retailers must grow at least 70% of the dope they sell. This forces licence-holders to master a suite of skills from cultivation to distribution. The task-force also suggests that for the law’s first year, only established medical-marijuana dispensaries should be granted retail licences. Some campaigners mutter about protectionism, though grudgingly admit that dispensaries deserve some reward for their pioneering (and risky) work. Mr Finlaw admits that vertical integration makes it hard to apply the excise tax: licence-holders will have an incentive to undervalue their product. That may help explain another proposal: to slap a tax on marijuana sales, on top of existing state and local sales taxes and the proposed excise tax. No figure will be presented to the legislature, but an “example” of 25% was floated in hearings. Regulators say they need the funds to enforce their rules. But set taxes too high, fear campaigners, and you leave the illegal market in place, which destroys one of the principal purposes of legalisation in the first place. Either way, any new taxes will have to be approved again by Colorado’s voters, probably in November. Over-tight rules create opportunities for and cosy relationships between the industry and regulators. But Colorado’s legislators must perform a balancing act, because they are being watched by the federal government. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and should Barack Obama’s administration decide to crack down, as it has done in some medical-marijuana states, the work of the task-force would rapidly come undone. In December Eric Holder, the attorney-general, said the Department of Justice would issue its response to the votes in Colorado and Washington “relatively soon”; on February 26th he upgraded that forecast to “soon”. Some members of the prohibition industry are running out of patience. On March 5th the president of the International Narcotics Control Board, an arm of the UN, said that marijuana legalisation in America violated international treaties and threatened public health. Hours later, eight former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which has led America’s drug war for decades, expressed alarm that federal laws were not being enforced. One predicted that stoned drivers would leave roads “littered with fatalities”. Cooler heads have prevailed in Colorado, at least for now. As the task-force wrapped up its work Mr Hickenlooper, a legalisation sceptic, told members that although he feared the unforeseen consequences of Amendment 64, he acknowledged the need for pragmatism. With luck, his attitude may prove infectious.From the Print Edition: United States Source: Economist, The (UK) Published: March 9, 2013Copyright: 2013 The Economist Newspaper Limited Contact: letters economist.com Website: http://www.economist.com/ URL: http://drugsense.org/url/rAVXGa3XCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml 
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Comment #10 posted by afterburner on March 13, 2013 at 07:22:56 PT
Morning Medicine
The New NORML: Looking Back at 40-Year Crusade to End Marijuana Prohibition.
By Paul Krassner, AlterNet.
As long as any government can arbitrarily decide which drugs are legal and which aren't, then anyone behind bars for a nonviolent drug offense is a political prisoner. March 9, 2013. READ MORE»
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/new-norml-looking-back-40-year-crusade-end-marijuana-prohibition?akid=10164.313040.4DxX9a&rd=1&src=newsletter806878&t=13Books. 
AlterNet / By Craig K Comstock.
The Psychedelic Future of the Mind.
Thomas Roberts' new book suggests that the use of psychedelics can amplify intelligence, induce creativity and help produce a better brain.
 March 12, 2013
http://www.alternet.org/books/psychedelic-future-mind
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by museman on March 12, 2013 at 12:52:00 PT
lets just cut to the chase..
remove the middle, muddied info; "'s market for MJ" and you have the uncanny revelation of reality;"America will be far from free." But that statement was probably made first sometime around the 1780's before the constitution was 'ratified' by one of the 'fathers of our country' probably in the company of such sellouts as Alexander Hamilton and other royal aristocrats who changed their surface allegiances but continued their worship of power and mammon as they reluctantly signed off on a Republic instead of a new monarchy.Lucky for them the original 'fathers of our lawyers' made sure to obscure the point by writing such generalities as "...inalienable rights such as life liberty and the pursuit of happiness."Well mammon has done a wonderful job of defining what that is, along with it's lawurinator worshippers."Life = subservience to the wealthy rulers.'"
"Liberty - you can have as much as you can pay for."
"The pursuit of happiness = you can pursue it all you want to as long as you don't interfere with someone else's worship of mammon -including looking different or smoking a plant that can make you consciously aware of all the illusions being perpetrated as liberties, justice, and the creation of a peaceful world.The Powers That Be (hereafter referred to as PTBs) are not the UN. Not the US government or any other government. These
"sitting authorities" are only there to make a simple lie more complicated. They are only puppets. It is mammon, and the rulers who created mammon hold the world in thrall to their false values and false renderings of propriety.The entire world now worships at the clay feet of the ancient king. Get closer so when it falls you will be crushed and the rest of us will be relieved.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
Mammon
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by disvet13 on March 11, 2013 at 18:59:53 PT:
the United States of America
since when do i have to obey the world government? since the nazis invaded my government they've done nothing but take over and rob us all of the original Constitution. taxation for the U.N., taxation to feed the world, while we go hungry, while they take away our guns. the U.N. is dictating my governments policies and I never voted for any of them. blowback is a term we should all embrace as a cause for the nazification of the world, they're the drug police in nazi clothing, only the U.N. will have guns, and there world government. our politicians have sold there soul for a position in the new world order.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by afterburner on March 10, 2013 at 12:44:54 PT
Know our History: Hope for the Future
Visions. 
AlterNet / By Noam Chomsky.
83 COMMENTS.
Chomsky: Corporations and the Richest Americans Viscerally Oppose Common Good.
The Masters of Mankind want us to become the "stupid nation," in the interests of their short-term gain -- damn the consequences. 
March 7, 2013 | The following is Part I of the transcript of a recent speech delivered by Noam Chomsky in February. AlterNet will publish Part II on Sunday, March 10.
http://www.alternet.org/visions/chomsky-corporations-and-richest-americans-viscerally-oppose-common-good?akid=10161.313040.zc-zHI&rd=1&src=newsletter806446&t=5At the dawning of the Industrial Revolution, people forced into the factories came from a background close to the land and steeped in appreciation for the arts. They organized alternatives to the stifling work conditions of factory slavery, forming cooperatatives and a robust labor movement.Today we face similar changes with a concerted attack on human rights by the corporate masters and their political allies. Again, people are turning to local cooperative action to reduce costs and to provide jobs and more nutritious food.The corporate grab to ban home growing of cannabis is another attempt to monopolize the market, to further dumb down the workers and to force the 'consumers' to pay astonomical prices, creating hardship for the truly sick and needy.Legalize home growing.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by mexweed on March 09, 2013 at 13:04:27 PT:
Weed prohib "tax" steers kids toward tobacco
Would be interesting to know what the eventual fair production-cost price will be, after the "prohibition tax" is gone, which we now pay the growers, shippers, dealers not for producing herb but for their risk and bizzywork evading law enforcement.  What if this base price instead of $200/oz as now, were more like $20 an ounce-- comparable to under $20 in most states today for the 28 grams net weight of tobacco in two $igarette PACks? (Oh yes, that $igarette price is tax-included.)The hidden genocide crime behind cannabis demonization and prohibition: maintaining that PRICE DIFFERENTIAL between the $200 cannabis and the $20 $igarette tobacco, which drives millions of kids (who just wanted to smoke something to be coool) into NICOTINE ADDICTION, late-life medical bills and 40% chance of premature death.
 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by afterburner on March 08, 2013 at 07:09:59 PT
Canadian MPAR (replaces MMAR) Protest & Cop Action
Ontario Residents Arrested After Investigation of Medical Marijuana Grow-Op.
By CBC News - Thursday, March 7 2013 
Follow: bust,
 Canada,
 cbc,
 dispensaries,
 grow-op,
 Hamilton,
 Medical Marijuana,
 MMAR,
 Ontario,
 RCMP.
 http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2013/03/07/Ontario-Residents-Arrested-After-Investigation-Medical-Marijuana-Grow-OpStanding Up To Cops and Bully MPs.
Mar 3 2013.
POT TV - Watch the Fight the MMPR protest at Conservative MP James Lunney's office in Nanaimo.
 http://www.pot.tv/video/2013/03/03/Standing-Cops-and-Bully-MPs
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by The GCW on March 07, 2013 at 22:47:06 PT
What about hemp?
Will banning outdoor growing eliminate hemp?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by John Tyler on March 07, 2013 at 20:40:15 PT
it's legal now
It will take a while to get it right, that is to get the prohibitionists out of the way of progress, but the ball is rolling in the right direction.Check this out at HerbalGramGo to this link http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/PageServer
HerbalGram is a herbal health mag I noticed at a local natural food store. Lately they have been having more and more articles about cannabis. Go to the web site and search cannabis and or marijuana. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Canis420 on March 07, 2013 at 17:51:37 PT:
HempWorld
Im with ya in spirit but I think the voters voted to regulate like alcohol and it should be as such. The no outdoor growing is F'd up as well. How can they get the benefits of hemp if they do not allow outdoor grows. I would think that the cannabis sativa's and indica's would give just as much fiber as the cannabis ruderalis. Send the flowers to the store and the stems to be processed into all the products of hemp. Pollinated hemp grows that want to be processed for seed could be confined to indoor/greenhouse grows imho.
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Comment #1 posted by HempWorld on March 07, 2013 at 16:01:24 PT
"Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act"
The Economist, nails it, as usual. The point is; Marijuana is never going to be regulated like alcohol, it is going to have more restrictions and higher taxes.Here is the real conundrum: it should be legally available to anyone over 21 in Colorado and yet neighboring states need to be 'dry.'What now? Cannabis sniffing dogs on the state borders? Maybe not a bad idea.Keep it all within CO, one last stop before the border and then smoke it or dump it.Let the DEA patrol the CO state border but not inside the state. Let CO be a cannabis paradise; skiing in the winter and mountain biking and hiking in the summer. Marijuana stores and cafes, all over the place. Come to Colorado... Rocky Mountain High!
Cannabis Shop
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