The Real Reason Pot Is Not Legal

[mhende6600]

Because they make more money off of it being illegal. Ok you buy a lid for 100 bucks whats the tax on that 10 bucks or so. But if you get caught with a illegal amount you pay court cost, fines and perhaps jail time depending on where you live. The cops would have to chase real criminals which would make them have to actually work. How else do they make money off of making pot illegal?

[tony286]

you may have a good point

[Spunky]

Damn pinko hippies

[Bored]

I strongly disagree, especially if you are saying this is the only reason its illegal. Some are misinformed, some are stubborn...

I would say the real reason is the pot paradox. Those who want to legalize it are to wasted to do anything about it.

[Deej]

wow, the 60s called, they want their marijuana lingo back... Really? 'lid'?

Am i right or is it just my region lingo?

[D Ghost]

I've heard this theory before. But it also costs money to house prisoners

[mhende6600]

Originally Posted by Deej

wow, the 60s called, they want their marijuana lingo back... Really? 'lid'?

Am i right or is it just my region lingo?

I like using old lingo from the 70's

[fris]

what the hell is a lid

[mhende6600]

Originally Posted by DJ The Kid

I've heard this theory before. But it also costs money to house prisoners

Jails are a business. The more in jail the more money they make

[Malicious Biz]

anyone know where I can score a lid of reefer?

[mhende6600]

Originally Posted by fris

what the hell is a lid

an ounce

[Angry Jew Cat - Banned for Life]

Originally Posted by tony404

you may have a good point

possibly, but a long term taxation will pay off far better than busting the odd idiot. i've never been caught for possession, and believe you me, i have smoked a fuckload of pot.

[INever]

I always thought that keeping it illegal had to do with restricting people from having "insights" in an altered state? Especially insights by all the people too afraid to try it cause it's illegal.

[421Fill]

Originally Posted by INever

I always thought that keeping it illegal had to do with restricting people from having "insights" in an altered state? Especially insights by all the people too afraid to try it cause it's illegal.

you high man?

[pornask]

Why marijuana is not legal - The Union Documentary

[kane]

Originally Posted by mhende6600

Because they make more money off of it being illegal. Ok you buy a lid for 100 bucks whats the tax on that 10 bucks or so. But if you get caught with a illegal amount you pay court cost, fines and perhaps jail time depending on where you live. The cops would have to chase real criminals which would make them have to actually work. How else do they make money off of making pot illegal?

Here is what is wrong with your theory.

Take your example. The tax on $100 worth of weed is $10. So the government is up $10 on the sale. Great.

Now if it is illegal and you get caught. Say you get a $500 fine. There are court costs in that fine and if you fight it they will provide you with a lawyer. Chances are most if not all of these fees will be picked up by the tax payers. So you have enough weed on you to send you to jail for 6 months. No prob. It costs around 35K a year to house a prisoner. So it just cost the government around 17.5K to jail you. Minus your $500 fine and and assuming you paid your court costs and your own lawyer the government is now only down $17,000. Add in the fact that you will probably have parole when you get out they have to pay a guy for that so now they are down that money as well - unless, again you pay for it.

Sure prisons are a business. Who gets paid? The company that owns/operates the prisons. Who pays them? The government. Where does the government get their money? I think you know the answer to that last one.

Cops are paid the same whether they are writing a ticket for speeding, sitting at a doughnut shop or working a drug sting so it doesn't cost them any more to go after other criminals than it does people selling weed. It actually probably cost more to go after those that sell weed because those types of operations tend rack up a lot of overtime.

So the math is simple.

Sell pot and be +$10
Or prosecute it and be down around - $17,000

Am I missing something?

[INever]

Obama's DOJ dude said California pot stores can toke it easy for the next 4 years at least.

[tiger]

Hint real reason pot is illegal has more to do with the non recreational uses.

[tical]

whats the ratio of people who smoke weed and get caught? even if the person that did get caught paid $500 that would be just like 50 $10 tax instances

legalizing and taxing it would make a lot of money plus prevent $ lost from laundering, etc (dealers don't report cash income)

if california legalizes it first the economy there will BLOW up, imagine how many tourists will flock and people will be moving there

nevada needs to do that shit, we were VERY close last time.. missed it by 7%

[Blazed]

Originally Posted by tical

whats the ratio of people who smoke weed and get caught? even if the person that did get caught paid $500 that would be just like 50 $10 tax instances

legalizing and taxing it would make a lot of money plus prevent $ lost from laundering, etc (dealers don't report cash income)

if california legalizes it first the economy there will BLOW up, imagine how many tourists will flock and people will be moving there

nevada needs to do that shit, we were VERY close last time.. missed it by 7%

Im guessing the OP was high when he posted this it doesnt make sense at all.

[mynameisjim]

Weed is illegal because it makes mothers eat their babies and people scrape their eyes out from the horrible things they see while tripping on it.

Don't fooled into thinking it's just harmless fun to smoke hippie lettuce.

[notoldschool]

Originally Posted by Bored

I strongly disagree, especially if you are saying this is the only reason its illegal. Some are misinformed, some are stubborn...

I would say the real reason is the pot paradox. Those who want to legalize it are to wasted to do anything about it.

LOL...you abviously are NOT educated on the issue..Some of the most intelligent, active, successful people in the world push for legalization and they get more done in a day than you do all fucking year. try again.

[Iron Fist]

Same reason why treating the disease is more profitable than curing it.

[LeRoy]

Also it's an easy bust for a pig umm I mean cop.

Theyd rather go after the stoner with some incense and candle.

Then crack heads with knives and guns

[jmcb420]

Weed is illegal for a number of reasons, but few as big as DOW CORP. Marijuana and its sister hemp are both considered by the fed to be illegal substances because of what they are. You can't patent anything that grows naturally. However, DOW CORP. owns several hundred patents based on the naturaly occuring fiberous structure of hemp. If marijuana is legalized, hemp will be too. DOW will lose their asses on it. The reason DOW is such a big player in the scene is because they are a huge contributor to both the Reps and Dems during every election. Google this or look into it further: There are places in the US where hemp clothing is both illegal to sell or posess. Scary.

Plus there's always that war on drugs shit they talk about.

[Bored]

Originally Posted by notoldschool

LOL...you abviously are NOT educated on the issue..Some of the most intelligent, active, successful people in the world push for legalization and they get more done in a day than you do all fucking year. try again.

Relax skippy, I wasn't serious. How would you know how much I do in a year? In any case, I do realize that some of the most intelligent, active, successful people are pushing for the legalization, however, potheads aren't known for their motivation and drive... which has the same validity as the original post...

[Gnus]

I believe it will be legal. Just a matter of time is all. Right now with the economy the way it is and having over 5 million workers collecting unemployment, the goal right now for congress and the president is to create jobs and resources that create money. One way to obtain this is to legalize it and tax it. This would create jobs plus create a new tax base that generates revenue. As they say history repeats itself. Well if I remember correctly back in The Great Depression alcohol was prohibited and by the end of the depression it was legalized. Just my.

Gary

[John-ACWM]

interesting point of view

[the Shemp]

Originally Posted by mhende6600

Because they make more money off of it being illegal. Ok you buy a lid for 100 bucks whats the tax on that 10 bucks or so. But if you get caught with a illegal amount you pay court cost, fines and perhaps jail time depending on where you live. The cops would have to chase real criminals which would make them have to actually work. How else do they make money off of making pot illegal?

if you buy an ounce for 75 and sell it for 100, then you have flipped your lid...

[bushwacker]

Originally Posted by kane

Here is what is wrong with your theory.

Take your example. The tax on $100 worth of weed is $10. So the government is up $10 on the sale. Great.

Now if it is illegal and you get caught. Say you get a $500 fine. There are court costs in that fine and if you fight it they will provide you with a lawyer. Chances are most if not all of these fees will be picked up by the tax payers. So you have enough weed on you to send you to jail for 6 months. No prob. It costs around 35K a year to house a prisoner. So it just cost the government around 17.5K to jail you. Minus your $500 fine and and assuming you paid your court costs and your own lawyer the government is now only down $17,000. Add in the fact that you will probably have parole when you get out they have to pay a guy for that so now they are down that money as well - unless, again you pay for it.

Sure prisons are a business. Who gets paid? The company that owns/operates the prisons. Who pays them? The government. Where does the government get their money? I think you know the answer to that last one.

Cops are paid the same whether they are writing a ticket for speeding, sitting at a doughnut shop or working a drug sting so it doesn't cost them any more to go after other criminals than it does people selling weed. It actually probably cost more to go after those that sell weed because those types of operations tend rack up a lot of overtime.

So the math is simple.

Sell pot and be +$10
Or prosecute it and be down around - $17,000

Am I missing something?

shhhhh don't try to make sense, he's probably to stoned to follow along.

[notoldschool]

Originally Posted by Bored

Relax skippy, I wasn't serious. How would you know how much I do in a year? In any case, I do realize that some of the most intelligent, active, successful people are pushing for the legalization, however, potheads aren't known for their motivation and drive... which has the same validity as the original post...

I hear ya. But you mean to say that goverment and ignorant citezens as well as some comedy movie directors have made poteheads not know for motivation and drive, which is actually quite the oppisite effect for many smokers. Many of our brightest minds smoke pot, even heavily, and they are very motivated and driven. Hell look at Obama, who was a avid pot head in his younger day.

[Barefootsies]

Originally Posted by tony404

you may have a good point

There was a whole special on this a few months back.

It more a less covered the prison system, and war on drugs. More over, the business of government, their acronyms and annual budget battles to get more money. It also covered the 'big business' of prisons, "war on drugs:, the jobs it creates, money it makes, and so forth.

Was kinda sad honestly. Especially when you factor in the amount of people in prison for drugs. It was some fucking crazy number. Followed by the elimination of state hospitals for the mentally ill, and how they are now pretty much warehouses in prison system with little to no true medical attention.

[Scott Jack]

The government would make way more money taxing reefer. First of all most avid smokers will spend anywhere from $100-$250+ a week on reefer which means about $20 roughly weekly in tax on average from every smoker.

The amount of morons who get caught with reefer is only a fraction of the people out there smoking it. Even when you get caught most courts will give you a small fine and let you walk as long as you're not hustling hard. Plus most potheads who get caught don't pay for a lawyer and just use duty council which is free so no money made there.

Then if they do send the pothead to jail who do you think pays for that the guy sitting in the cell?

There is no way you make more money off keeping pot illegal unless I'm missing something here.

[jakethedog]

re "lid" ..I just found this ..
I Quote:
The term 'lid' of marijuana goes back to the 60's. Back then you could buy a 'lid' or a 'can' of pot. The can was approximately [sic] 1 oz, the lid was 1/8 oz. The term came from the practice of breaking up a brick (a kilo or later a key) of tightly packed marijuana and storing and selling it in Price Albert tobacco cans. A can held approximately [sic] one ounce. the lid would hold approximately [sic] 1/8 oz. No one weighed it really, it was all done by eye . . .

[kane]

Originally Posted by bushwacker

shhhhh don't try to make sense, he's probably to stoned to follow along.

Very possible. I got a contact high reading his post

[bobby666]

now i know even that

[Michaelious]

Its illegal cos the timber guys didn't want ppl using hemp

[Donfoolio]

Originally Posted by mhende6600

Because they make more money off of it being illegal. Ok you buy a lid for 100 bucks whats the tax on that 10 bucks or so. But if you get caught with a illegal amount you pay court cost, fines and perhaps jail time depending on where you live. The cops would have to chase real criminals which would make them have to actually work. How else do they make money off of making pot illegal?

It's the REAL reason indeed, but only one of the real reasons! Others being that they know it surpasses Alcohol in terms of safety and they don't want a safer world, bla bla etc etc...

[Janak]

Pot kills kittens and buys Manilow records. It is the cancer that is killing cancer.

[StickyGreen]

Originally Posted by mhende6600

Because they make more money off of it being illegal. Ok you buy a lid for 100 bucks whats the tax on that 10 bucks or so. But if you get caught with a illegal amount you pay court cost, fines and perhaps jail time depending on where you live. The cops would have to chase real criminals which would make them have to actually work. How else do they make money off of making pot illegal?

lol, nice try.

You should watch the film American Drug War: The Last White Hope.

[cherrylula]

Originally Posted by pornask

Why marijuana is not legal - The Union Documentary

quoted for truth

[Pleasurepays]

Originally Posted by mhende6600

Because they make more money off of it being illegal. Ok you buy a lid for 100 bucks whats the tax on that 10 bucks or so. But if you get caught with a illegal amount you pay court cost, fines and perhaps jail time depending on where you live. The cops would have to chase real criminals which would make them have to actually work. How else do they make money off of making pot illegal?

people like you are why efforts to legalize it fail to begin with. retards making retarded arguments while looking and acting retarded doesn't do much for the cause.

[HandballJim]

There is a lot of reasons...the dealers are not taxed, so the fed. is not getting their cut. If it was legal you would see more accidents, cars, working with machines, people falling in front of trains, etc. You would say it is okay to smoke weed, meanwhile there is a huge anti-smoking campain going on. You would have a lot of unemployment, cops, correction officers, therapists, drug counslers, drug manufacturs, drug dealers, rehab centers, etc.

Well now thinking about it the fed is getting their cut, they wait years to bust the big fish...so they can get a bigger pot of money in one shot.

Why it makes sense to legalize it, maybe with the tax they can reduce the defecit of the country, and lower taxes one day. Less senseless deaths over drug deals, always someone innocent gets killed. Let the military move the drugs...no gangsters will fuck with them. The most gangster photo I ever seen was the U.S. Military...chilling in Sudams palace smoking cigars in his living room...now that is gangster.

[kane]

Originally Posted by Pleasurepays

people like you are why efforts to legalize it fail to begin with. retards making retarded arguments while looking and acting retarded doesn't do much for the cause.

That is one of the problems. The legalize pot movement always picks someone who is stoned as their spokesperson

[StickyGreen]

Originally Posted by HandballJim

If it was legal you would see more accidents, cars, working with machines, people falling in front of trains

Easily the dumbest shit I've read all day.

[HandballJim]

Originally Posted by StickyGreen

Easily the dumbest shit I've read all day.

Okay your pro weed, you might have common sense...but many don't have common sense...and would abuse it. People can barely fuction on cold medicine, let alone fucked up on drugs. At my job they allow drinking beer now after 3pm on Fridays...and everyone an't worth nothing at this time...and act real stupid.

[KillerK]

Originally Posted by notoldschool

I hear ya. But you mean to say that goverment and ignorant citezens as well as some comedy movie directors have made poteheads not know for motivation and drive, which is actually quite the oppisite effect for many smokers. Many of our brightest minds smoke pot, even heavily, and they are very motivated and driven. Hell look at Obama, who was a avid pot head in his younger day.

Please share who the people are that actually are worth a shit that smoke weed. Cause anyone I've ever met that does it more then once a day has problems.

[StickyGreen]

Originally Posted by HandballJim

Okay your pro weed, you might have common sense...but many don't have common sense...and would abuse it. People can barely fuction on cold medicine, let alone fucked up on drugs. At my job they allow drinking beer now after 3pm on Fridays...and everyone an't worth nothing at this time...and act real stupid.

Marijuana is one of the easiest "illegal" drugs to obtain.

The people you are worried about getting in car crashes and going crazy with machinery are already high on marijuana if they choose to be. Legalizing it would most likely decrease the demand for it, look what happened during the prohibition of alcohol.

And I don't know why you are comparing beer to marijuana, they are complete opposites in regards to their effects on people. A simple example is myself working online. When I'm drunk I can't get anything done. When I'm high I can focus on what I'm doing better than when I'm sober sometimes. And let's not bring driving into the alcohol/marijuana argument, because I think we would all rather have a high driver on the road than a shitfaced driver.

[HandballJim]

Originally Posted by StickyGreen

Marijuana is one of the easiest "illegal" drugs to obtain.

The people you are worried about getting in car crashes and going crazy with machinery are already high on marijuana if they choose to be. Legalizing it would most likely decrease the demand for it, look what happened during the prohibition of alcohol.

And I don't know why you are comparing beer to marijuana, they are complete opposites in regards to their effects on people. A simple example is myself working online. When I'm drunk I can't get anything done. When I'm high I can focus on what I'm doing better than when I'm sober sometimes. And let's not bring driving into the alcohol/marijuana argument, because I think we would all rather have a high driver on the road than a shitfaced driver.

Yes, you are right beer and weed has different effects...maybe it is just me...weed makes me kind of relaxed and paranoid at the same time. Some of the top players I play Handball with smoke right before they play and end up winning the damn tournament.

[Janak]

Makes people lazy. Booze just makes them violent. Alcohol is economic win.